China and North Korea to open New Yalu River Bridge, state media reports

What the report says

China and North Korea are set to officially open the New Yalu River Bridge to traffic on Thursday, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, as reported by Al Jazeera. The bridge is intended to link China’s Dandong New Zone with North Korea’s Sinuiju and has been delayed for years despite China completing its side in 2014.

The project had been seen as a way to support cross-border trade, but North Korea left its portion unfinished after relations with Beijing worsened in the years following China’s support for United Nations sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons tests. The opening comes amid a broader, cautious thaw in China-North Korea ties.

Al Jazeera noted that China’s exports to North Korea reached a six-year high last year, and that Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang in June for the first time since 2019. The report also placed the bridge in a wider regional context: Russia and North Korea opened their first bridge earlier this month, and North Korea’s ties with Russia have expanded significantly in recent years.

More broadly, the bridge matters because it could improve land transport and trade between the two neighbors, even as North Korea’s economic and diplomatic relationships shift among China, Russia and the United States.