BEIJING — The New Yalu River Bridge linking Dandong in China's Liaoning province with Sinuiju in North Korea's North Pyongan province will officially open on the 15th.
China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on the 14th that the newly built New Yalu River Bridge will officially open on the 15th following consultations between China and North Korea, and that a joint opening ceremony is scheduled for the same day. Earlier, there had been expectations that the bridge would open on the 6th, the 77th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, but no separate event was held at the time. Signs that the opening was imminent began to appear the previous day, when North Korea's national flag and China's five-starred red flag were raised at the North Korean entrance to the bridge.
The New Yalu River Bridge sits about 13 kilometers southwest of the China-North Korea Friendship Bridge, the existing crossing between Dandong and Sinuiju. The project was launched in 2009, when relations between the two countries were friendly, and was completed in 2014 with China covering the roughly 2.2 billion yuan (about 440 billion won) cost. The bridge measures 3,030 meters with four lanes in both directions. But delays in building the connecting road and customs facilities on the North Korean side pushed back the opening for 12 years. Analysts say strained relations, after China joined United Nations sanctions on North Korea, were a factor.
The mood began to shift last September, when a visit to China by Kim Jong-un, general secretary of North Korea's Workers' Party, restored high-level dialogue. Analysts say Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pyongyang in June of this year gave particularly strong impetus to preparations for the opening.
Kim Kyu-bum, an associate research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy under the National Intelligence Service, wrote in a recently published issue brief titled "The Belated Opening of the New Yalu River Bridge Becomes Reality: Causes and Outlook" that it is worth noting the possibility that the two countries reached some form of agreement over the economic differences and friction that had built up in recent years. Key points of contention may have included how to reduce North Korea's growing trade deficit with China and how to offset that deficit with tangible or intangible benefits, the researcher said.
The Dandong-Sinuiju corridor connected by the New Yalu River Bridge is the overland trade hub where about 70% of China-North Korea trade is concentrated. Once the bridge opens, it is expected to serve as the main freight route, replacing the China-North Korea Friendship Bridge, which carries only a single lane of road alongside a railway and has limited cargo capacity. Some experts expect total freight volume to as much as double.
Others say expanded transport capacity may not immediately translate into a surge in trade. A diplomatic source in Beijing said that with China currently taking part in U.N. sanctions on North Korea and with North Korea itself lacking trade experience, a rapid increase in trade volume appears unlikely even after the bridge opens. Trade between the two countries stood at $2.73 billion last year, recovering to the level of 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it remains about one-third of the $6.86 billion recorded in 2014, before sanctions were tightened.