A new bridge connecting China and North Korea opens, expanding trade and traffic and improving relations.

The new Yalu River Bridge, which connects Dandong in China's Liaoning Province and Sinuiju in northwestern North Korea, opened on the 15th. It is likely that this will lead to an expansion of trade and people-to-people exchanges, and that the relationship between the two countries will improve.

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It connects both sides of the Yalu River, which flows along the border between China and North Korea, and has a total length of approximately 3 kilometers. It is said to have a significantly higher capacity for transporting goods than the Sino-North Korean Friendship Bridge on the north side of the bridge, which is the center of cargo transport between the two countries, and the Chinese side has positioned it as an "important facility for mutual cooperation between the two countries" (Mao Ning, Director of Press Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Construction of the bridge began in 2010 as a symbol of cooperation between China and North Korea, and was almost completed in 2014. The opening of the line had been postponed due to lack of progress in the construction of related facilities on the North Korean side, but it appears that construction has accelerated due to recent improvements in relations between the two countries. In March of this year, passenger train service resumed between China and North Korea for the first time in about six years, after it had been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.