North Korea's Air Koryo freight plane parked at Noi Bai International Airport in Vietnam's capital of Hanoi, on Feb. 24. Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

North Korea wants to buy new Russian passenger planes to improve safety on air routes between Pyongyang and Vladivostok, according to reports in Russia.

Sergei Neverov, who recently led a Russian parliamentary delegation to Pyongyang, said the North's foreign ministry had shown interest in buying the Russian planes, Russian news agency TASS reported Sunday.

"At a meeting at the North Korean foreign ministry, we touched upon the issue of civil aviation and flight safety," the agency quoted the deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house as saying.