China and North Korea will open the New Yalu River Bridge on Thursday, October 15, ending a 12-year wait for a crossing that was finished in 2014 and then left standing idle. China's Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday that the bridge will officially open following consultations between the two countries, with a joint opening ceremony held the same day.
The cable-stayed bridge runs about 3,030 meters across the Yalu River, linking Dandong in China's Liaoning province with Sinuiju in North Korea, about 13 kilometers southwest of the existing Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge. The project was launched in 2009 and China covered the roughly 2.2 billion yuan cost, completing its side in October 2014. But Pyongyang left the connecting roads and customs facilities on its side unfinished as relations froze over North Korea's nuclear tests and the United Nations sanctions that followed — sanctions China itself joined.
The signs that the wait was ending appeared this week. North Korea's flag and China's five-starred red flag were raised at the North Korean entrance to the bridge on Tuesday. Daily NK reported that Chinese staff at the crossing began regular shifts on October 8 and that North Korea has serviced several dozen freight trucks and put them on standby to haul cargo as soon as the bridge opens.
"The staff are in place and the vehicles are ready, so people believe the opening is imminent. The mood is clearly different from before, when we waited with no idea of when it would open." — a source in China, speaking to Daily NK
The opening follows a rapid thaw. Kim Jong-un's visit to China last September restored high-level dialogue between the two governments, and analysts say Xi Jinping's visit to Pyongyang in June gave the final push to preparations. It also comes weeks after North Korea opened its first road bridge with Russia, meaning Pyongyang is now expanding overland links with both of its big neighbors at the same time.
The stakes are mostly economic. The Dandong–Sinuiju corridor carries about 70 percent of all China–North Korea trade, and the old Friendship Bridge — built in 1943, with a single road lane alongside a railway — has long been a bottleneck. Some experts expect freight volume could as much as double on the new four-lane route. Trade between the two countries reached $2.73 billion last year, back to its pre-pandemic level but still only about a third of the $6.86 billion recorded in 2014, while China's exports to the North hit a six-year high of $2.3 billion. Others urge caution: a diplomatic source in Beijing noted that China is still taking part in U.N. sanctions on North Korea and the North has limited trade experience, so a rapid surge is unlikely even with the bridge open — and while vehicles have recently been seen on the bridge, there is no independent confirmation yet that full commercial traffic and customs processing have begun.
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