A new bridge linking China and North Korea will be opened this week, Chinese state television reported on Wednesday, 12 years after its construction, in a new indication of deepening economic relations between Beijing and Pyongyang.
The new Yalu River Bridge, which will open tomorrow, Thursday, according to the state broadcaster CCTV, connects the border city of Dandong, located in northeastern China, with one of the most isolated countries in the world.
The construction of the bridge, which consists of four lanes and extends 3,026 metres, was completed in 2014, but its opening was postponed due to problems including the absence of link roads and customs facilities on the North Korean side, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
China is North Korea's largest trading partner and a vital source of diplomatic, economic and political support for the nuclear-armed state.
North Korea closed its borders during the “Covid-19” pandemic, and train trips between the two neighbors in East Asia resumed last March, after a six-year hiatus.
The new bridge was designed to be an alternative to the “China-Korea Friendship Bridge,” which was previously used regularly to operate passenger trains, but its capacity is limited.
North Korea has not yet resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens, who previously made up the vast majority of its visitors from abroad.
The opening of the new Yalu River Bridge comes more than a month after North Korea and Russia opened their first land bridge, a move hailed by Pyongyang as evidence of closer relations.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday that officials are reviewing the code of conduct for US forces in Japan outside military bases, after a woman was killed in Okinawa by a US Marine.
Crimes committed by US military personnel, which include rape, assaults, hit-and-run accidents and drunk driving, have long sparked protests in Japan's southern island, which has for years called on other regions of the country to share the burden of hosting US forces.
“We plan to hold talks that include whether the current rules are effective,” Motegi said, adding that “issues such as patrols and curfew management” would be reviewed in talks with the United States.
He pointed out that the high-level bilateral consultations will address the behavior of American military personnel outside duty hours and the “freedom” policy that governs their private activities outside military bases.
Japanese police arrested a US Marine stationed in Okinawa last week on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in the capital, Naha.
The US Army imposed an operational suspension for two days after the soldier's arrest, to enhance discipline and standards, followed by a curfew for a month starting at midnight, according to Agence France-Presse.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Tuesday: “We began high-level working consultations between Japan and the United States last week, regarding the effective measures that should be taken,” and she added before a legislative committee session: “The Japanese government will continue to do everything in its power to address this issue and ensure that it does not happen again.”
The crimes committed by American soldiers created tension in relations between the two close security allies.
Last year, a Japanese court sentenced a US Marine accused of strangling and attempting to rape a woman in her twenties to imprisonment for seven years.
It is noteworthy that there are about 54,000 American soldiers in Japan, most of them in Okinawa.
Indian police arrested senior leaders of the Al-Shabaab movement, known as “Cockroches” or “cockroaches” today (Tuesday), after they crossed barriers to enter the courtyard of a historic observatory, a common site of protests, chanting slogans demanding the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, the head of the Election Commission, after a controversial amendment to the voter lists, according to what was published by “Reuters”.
Supporters of the KJP and opposition groups organized almost daily protests this month, demanding Kumar's dismissal over the amendments, which critics say serve the interests of the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Election Commission denied its support for any party, and clarified that voters who were wrongly disqualified could re-register themselves, while the Bharatiya Janata Party accused its competitors of trying to undermine democracy by unjustly questioning the legitimacy of electoral processes.
Thousands joined a protest march organized by opposition groups on Monday, after repressive measures thwarted plans by the Kokroche Janata Party to organize a demonstration at the weekend, as police arrested thousands of demonstrators, including party leaders.
Yesterday, Monday, New Delhi Police announced that the Jantar Mantar Observatory, located in the capital's central business district, was no longer available as an official protest site, and indicated that three new sites had been identified.
A live broadcast from the Kokroch Janta Party showed about a dozen volunteers jumping over a gate and barriers to reach the site, raising the Indian flag and chanting slogans before the police arrested them.
New Delhi Police has not yet responded to a request for comment.
