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North Korea called the first road bridge across its narrow border with Russia a concrete sign of tightening bonds, state media reported on Tuesday, as Pyongyang gains advantages from its powerful neighbours Moscow and Beijing.
The bridge over the Tumen river into Russia and an under-construction span to China are part of a shift that offers Western-sanctioned Pyongyang economic and strategic options it has long sought, experts said.
North Korea “will simultaneously secure two major overland routes linking it with Russia and China, allowing it to encourage competition between the two countries and maximise its gains,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University.
He noted the bridges also “can be a message to the United States that North Korea has no reason to beg Washington for sanctions relief or make concessions on denuclearisation in order to negotiate,” Lim added.
Russia noted the bridge is designed to accommodate expanded growth in freight with the capacity for up to 300 vehicles daily, which adds to the rail and air links already between the neighbours.
Ukrainian rights group Truth Hounds, however, previously warned that the new bridge could become “a direct artery for moving North Korean troops, construction brigades and military officials into Russia, with Russian technology and resources flowing in the opposite direction.”
The ceremony on Monday marking the new bridge’s opening came as Russia and North Korea have heavily boosted military and economic ties since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
North Korea dispatched thousands of troops to Russia in 2024 to help ward off a Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region, while Kyiv has accused Moscow of using North Korean missiles in its regular barrages.
South Korea’s central bank estimated in July that North Korea’s economy grew more than 3% for a third straight year in 2025, citing it’s expansion of economic cooperation with Russia as a “major drive.”
The bank’s official said North Korea’s gross national income also “received a boost from a sharp rise in foreign currency earnings” linked to the deployment of its troops to Russia.
Beijing-Moscow-Pyongyang bloc
“The completion of the bridge is a significant event adding a new dynamic movement to the overall bilateral cooperation,” North Korean official Pak Thae-song said in comments carried by the official KCNA news agency.
North Korea and China are already connected by the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, which is regularly used by passenger trains, but its capacity is limited.
After a long halt, the bridge partly reopened and restored daily passenger train services with China earlier this year, but has not yet resumed issuing tourism visas to Chinese citizens, who once made up the bulk of its overseas visitors.
North Korea has long kept tight control over foreign visitors and effectively sealed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago.
The New Yalu River Bridge, intended as an alternative and eventual replacement of the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, is expected by experts to be completed this year.
The completion of the bridge “sends a political and geopolitical message demonstrating the formation of a “North Korea-China-Russia continental triangular bloc,” said Lim.
Additional sources • AFP