[3] Co-director Nicholas Bonner described it as a "girl-power fairy tale about dreaming to fly", adding that his hope was "for Korean audiences to see the film on both sides of the border and be entertained".

[1] The three producers reportedly "steered [the North Korean writers] toward comedy and away from the more predictable propaganda line of triumph through hard work".

[6] In March 2013 it played in the United States, with the Wall Street Journal calling it a "feel-good style of a Doris Day–Rock Hudson picture".

[8] The programmer for Toronto described the film in these terms: "A winning, life-affirming fable about a young coal miner's pursuit of her dream to become an acrobat, Comrade Kim Goes Flying is the first Western-financed fiction feature made entirely in North Korea".

[9] Reviewing the film for Variety, Jay Weissberg wrote: "Comrade Kim Goes Flying proves that cooperation with the West really is possible, at least in cinema.