China and North Korea Open New Yalu River Bridge After 12-Year Delay

China and North Korea opened the New Yalu River Bridge on 15 October 2026, twelve years after the main structure was finished. The 3-kilometre, four-lane road bridge connects the Chinese border city of Dandong in Liaoning Province with Sinuiju in North Korea. Trucks decorated with the national flags of both countries crossed the span during the morning ceremony. Chinese Premier Li Qiang, in a video address, described the bridge as a new landmark symbolising traditional friendship and said bilateral relations were entering a new chapter.

Construction on the Chinese side was completed in 2014. North Korea left approach roads and customs facilities unfinished for years, delaying the opening. Relations between the two countries cooled after Beijing supported United Nations sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear tests. The new bridge sits roughly 10 to 12 kilometres downstream from the older Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, which was built between 1937 and 1943 during Japanese occupation and carries a single-lane road plus a railway track with a 20-ton weight limit.

Chinese officials said the new crossing would ease bottlenecks in cross-border freight. Most official trade has until now moved across the older bridge. China is North Korea’s largest trading partner. Bilateral trade recovered to about $2.7 billion last year, driven mainly by Chinese exports. Chinese exports to North Korea rose 25 percent to $2.3 billion in 2025. Analysts noted that a full return to pre-sanctions trade volumes is unlikely in the near term because of remaining international restrictions.

The opening ceremony took place in Dandong. Crowds gathered on the Chinese side. North Korean state media had not immediately reported the event. The bridge opening followed recent high-level contacts between the two leaderships and came a day after North Korea test-fired cruise missiles from a submarine. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the bridge would facilitate economic, trade and people-to-people exchanges.

The delay had limited Dandong’s role as the primary gateway for goods moving into North Korea. Local officials in Liaoning had long pressed for the new route to increase capacity. The four-lane deck is 28.5 metres wide and allows two-way traffic, unlike the single-lane older crossing. Chinese state media showed the first vehicles, some decorated with flowers, moving across the bridge.

The new link does not remove the effect of UN sanctions on dual-use or prohibited goods. It does, however, expand the physical capacity for permitted commercial traffic. Traders on both sides have watched the unfinished North Korean approaches for years; their completion and the formal opening mark the first sustained use of the structure since it was built.