Kim Jong-un crosses new China bridge in surprise Dandong visit

The three-kilometre, two-way bridge, which connects Dandong in China's northeast Liaoning province with the North Korean city of Sinuiju, sat unused for 12 years until this month, delayed by North Korea's lagging efforts to finish customs facilities on its side of the border. It replaces the single-lane Friendship Bridge as the main trade thoroughfare between the two countries. Kim's visit was his first to China in more than a year, and followed Chinese leader Xi Jinping's state visit to North Korea in June, his first in seven years.

During the visit, Kim toured a bus factory with China's top political adviser Wang Huning and paid homage at Dandong's war museum to the "friendship forged in blood" between the two countries, a reference to the US-bombed bridge from which Chinese troops entered the Korean War in 1950 to support the North.

Justin Hastings, a professor of international relations at the University of Sydney, said the visit showed North Korea is "most comfortable playing two patrons off each other, basically to achieve its own autonomy." Christopher Green, a Korea studies expert at Leiden University, noted that Kim did not attend last month's opening of North Korea's first road bridge to Russia. "He has gone over the bridge to show his belief in the strength of China-North Korean relations," Green said, "and given his imprimatur to bilateral trade."

North Korea depends on China for almost all of its foreign trade, most of it transiting through Dandong. Green said whether trade ramps up would be determined by politics, not infrastructure alone. Truck driver Zhang, who crosses the border at least once a week, was sceptical that his business would see a sudden pick-up in cargo volume. “As long as US sanctions remain, [the bridge] won't make much difference. North Korea can't develop even if it wants to,” he said.

UN sanctions adopted in 2017 make it illegal for member states to sell military equipment, heavy machinery and luxury items to the regime, and hiring North Korean workers in restaurants and factories also breaches sanctions, with their wages confiscated by Pyongyang. The practice is well documented in China despite Beijing maintaining it complies.

The visit stirred excitement in Dandong, where roadblocks cordoned off the bridge district and hotels along the riverfront booked out. "Everyone went crazy," said Zhang. "Dandong is a small city; we've never had such a high-ranking official visit." The city mines public curiosity about its neighbour for tourism, with pay-for-use binoculars offering close-up views of Sinuiju and river cruises running on the hour. "We have more freedom than North Korea," said Mr Liu, a local in his 50s who swims in the Yalu River most days.

One trading centre near the customs checkpoint is banking on the bridge: a worker said North Korean business people come regularly and were due back in a couple of days to buy medicines. "Demand is huge," he said.