Kim Jong Un Crosses New Yalu River Bridge Into China, Signaling Warmer North Korea–Beijing Ties
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare day trip across the border into China on Saturday, October 24, inaugurating a long-dormant bridge over the Yalu River and underscoring a renewed push to deepen relations between Pyongyang and Beijing. It was Kim’s first known trip abroad in roughly a year.
Kim traveled by road across the New Yalu River Bridge into the Chinese border city of Dandong, in Liaoning Province, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry and China’s state news agency, Xinhua. The crossing marked the practical opening of a structure that had stood essentially unused for more than a decade.
In Dandong, Kim met Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of China’s Communist Party and one of the country’s most senior officials, who passed along greetings from Chinese President Xi Jinping. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, was also present at the bridge. Kim and his hosts toured a Chinese car factory and visited a memorial honoring Beijing’s support for North Korea during the 1950–53 Korean War.
According to North Korean state media KCNA, Kim pledged that his country would “firmly carry forward the invincible DPRK-China friendship forged at the cost of blood.” Recrossing the span toward home, he said the bridge would fulfill its “historic mission of linking the two countries.” Wang Huning called the memorial visit “of great significance” to the two nations’ relationship.
The cable-stayed New Yalu River Bridge, roughly three kilometers long, connects Dandong with the North Korean city of Sinuiju. China financed its construction — reported at about US$350 million — with work beginning in 2011 and the main structure completed around 2015. The bridge had initially been expected to open in 2014 but sat idle for years as roads and customs facilities on the North Korean side stalled, delays later compounded by pandemic border closures. It was built to relieve the aging Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, a single-track 1943 span unable to handle heavy truck traffic.
The visit comes as Kim recalibrates North Korea’s foreign relationships. In recent years Pyongyang had leaned heavily toward Russia, dispatching thousands of troops and conventional weapons to aid Moscow’s war in Ukraine in exchange for military and economic support. China, long North Korea’s main ally and economic lifeline, is widely seen as seeking to reassert its influence over its neighbor. Kim last traveled to Beijing in September 2025, when he joined President Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a large military parade.
Analysts say the carefully staged crossing carries symbolic weight for all three governments. For China, hosting Kim projects renewed closeness with Pyongyang at a moment of sharpened rivalry with the United States. For North Korea, the reopened trade artery promises an economic lift and a hedge against overreliance on Russia. The display is likely to draw close scrutiny in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington, where officials are watching for signs that Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang may be drawing into a tighter bloc.
Source: CBS News / Associated Press