Kim Jong-un crosses new Yalu River bridge into China
First trip abroad in more than a year as premier Li Qiang travels to Dandong, bridge China finished building twelve years ago finally opened this month
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A railway station in Seoul, South Korea, shows a TV news report of Kim Jong-un's visit to China. Photograph: Kim Soo-hyeon/Reuters
theguardian.com
The New Yalu River Bridge seen from the Chinese border city of Dandong, in Liaoning province. Photograph: Florence Lo/Reuters
theguardian.com
Kim Jong-un crossed the newly opened New Yalu River Bridge into China on Saturday, arriving by train in the border city of Dandong, in Liaoning province, after traveling from Pyongyang through Sinuiju, a South Korean government source told the Yonhap news agency. The trip is the North Korean leader's first known journey abroad in more than a year. It was not announced in advance, and by Saturday evening neither Pyongyang nor Beijing had confirmed it.
Chinese premier Li Qiang also traveled to Dandong. The crossing itself carries the story: China finished building the New Yalu River Bridge twelve years ago, but it opened to traffic only in mid-October, with the delay attributed to the North Korean side. In early September, North Korea and Russia opened the first road bridge across their own border. Between the two crossings, Pyongyang is now connected by road to both of its main backers.
China marks on Sunday the anniversary of its entry into the 1950-53 Korean war on the North's side, and Kim's crossing fell on its eve. Japan's Kyodo news agency reported traffic controls around the bridge and near a museum devoted to China's role in the war, with hotel bookings in the area restricted — measures diplomatic sources linked to the visit of a senior North Korean official.
It is Kim's sixth visit to China and his first since September 2025, when he attended a military parade in Beijing alongside Chinese president Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Xi traveled to Pyongyang in June, his first trip there in seven years, and hosts the APEC summit in Shenzhen on November 18-19.
Around the visit, the peninsula is getting louder. Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong has issued about ten statements criticizing Seoul since late September — a frequency South Korea's unification ministry calls unusual — and officials in Washington and Seoul said on Friday they see little chance of Kim meeting the US president this year. South Korea plans to resume loudspeaker broadcasts at the border within days.