China and North Korea will officially open the New Yalu River Bridge on Thursday, ending a 12-year delay that left the major cross-border infrastructure project unused despite its completion in 2014. The opening comes as relations between Beijing and Pyongyang improve, passenger rail services and direct flights resume, and both countries seek to expand economic exchanges across their shared border.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday that the two countries would hold a ceremony to mark the bridge’s opening. The crossing connects Dandong, in north-eastern China, with Sinuiju in North Korea and is expected to become a major route for trade and the movement of people between the two countries. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a briefing on Wednesday that the bridge would “further facilitate economic trade and people exchanges between the two countries and deliver greater benefit to the two peoples”.
Construction began in 2010 following an agreement reached in 2009 during a visit to Pyongyang by Wen Jiabao, then China’s premier. The bridge was originally scheduled to open in October 2014, but the inauguration was repeatedly delayed, with no official explanation for the prolonged suspension. China completed its side of the crossing that year, while work and preparations on the North Korean side remained incomplete for years.
The delay was reportedly linked to unfinished road connections, customs and logistics facilities in North Korea, as well as strained bilateral relations and border closures associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. A customs facility on the North Korean side is believed to have been completed only recently. South Korea’s Chosun Daily reported signs of preparations for the opening last week, including vehicles crossing the bridge and the activation of traffic lights and bridge indicators.
The new crossing offers a substantial increase in road capacity over the existing route. The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, which lies upstream, was completed by Japan in 1943 during the Second World War and renamed in 1990. It carries both a railway track and a single-lane road, creating a bottleneck for traffic between Dandong and Sinuiju. The older bridge cannot accommodate trucks weighing more than 20 tonnes, according to reports cited in the source material.
By contrast, the New Yalu River Bridge has two lanes in each direction. State-run China News Service reported in 2014 that the crossing could eventually handle up to 80 per cent of trade between the two countries. Its opening is expected to expand the capacity of a border corridor that is central to North Korea’s commercial relationship with its largest trading partner, although the extent to which the projected traffic volume will be realised remains uncertain.
The bridge’s inauguration follows a gradual improvement in relations after tensions intensified when Beijing supported tighter United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang in 2017 over its nuclear weapons programme. Since 2018, China has sought to repair the relationship, while North Korea has also developed closer military and political ties with Russia. Analysts have suggested that Pyongyang’s growing relationship with Moscow may have reduced its diplomatic dependence on Beijing, prompting China to place renewed emphasis on bilateral engagement.
Trade figures indicate the continuing importance of the Chinese connection. China’s exports to North Korea reached $2.3bn last year, their highest level in six years and an increase of 25 per cent from the previous year. China has long served as North Korea’s principal trading partner and economic benefactor, while exchanges with China could provide goods needed for the development of North Korea’s civilian economy. By comparison, North Korea’s expanding trade with Russia has largely involved military supplies, according to analysts cited in the source material.
Transport links have also begun to recover. Passenger train services between China and North Korea resumed in March this year after a six-year interruption, while direct flights between the countries have increased. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang in June, his first trip there since 2019, and agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to strengthen bilateral strategic coordination. Kim had visited Beijing in September last year. North Korea has not, however, resumed issuing tourism visas to Chinese citizens, who previously accounted for most of its foreign visitors.
The relationship also retains a formal military dimension. China and North Korea signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in 1961, committing each country to provide immediate military and other support if the other came under armed attack. The two countries commemorated the treaty’s 65th anniversary in July. The agreement remains China’s only formal military alliance, although bilateral relations have experienced periods of strain.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang has expanded its land connections with Russia. In September, Russia and North Korea opened their first road bridge over the Tumen River, complementing an existing railway link. The crossing connects the Russian and North Korean border regions and represents a parallel expansion of overland infrastructure beyond China.
Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, told The Korea Herald last month that the two new road bridges could enable North Korea to deepen economic integration with its neighbours. Major overland corridors, he said, would allow Pyongyang to exploit strategic competition between Beijing and Moscow to maximise its economic gains.
