China keen to strengthen North Korea trade ties with New Yalu River Bridge opening

In a taped speech to the opening ceremony on the New Yalu River Bridge on Thursday, Premier Li Qiang said the link was a landmark in Chinese-North Korean friendship.

Li said the bridge would promote economic and trade ties, expand personnel exchanges and tighten the bond between the two peoples, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The four-lane bridge connects Dandong in the northeastern province of Liaoning with the North Korean border city of Sinuiju.

Until now, traffic between the two cities has been restricted to the single-lane Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, an ageing bottleneck that cannot support trucks weighing more than 20 tonnes.

Work started on the new bridge in December 2010 and was completed in October 2014. Authorities have not explained the delay in the opening.

The ceremony on Thursday included trucks decorated with flowers and national flags crossing the span. The event was closed to the public and authorities did not say who attended.

In his speech, Li said he expected that both sides would take the opening as an opportunity to improve port clearance, raise the level of connectivity and tap into the potential for border region cooperation.

“Under the strategic guidance of the top leaders of both [ruling] parties and nations, China-North Korea relations are entering a new stage and opening a new chapter,” Li said in the video.

Quoting Chinese President Xi Jinping, Li reaffirmed Beijing’s unshakeable commitment to its traditional friendship with Pyongyang, its support for Kim Jong-un’s leadership, and its resolve to safeguard their common interests and strategic environment, regardless of international shifts.

Li said the bridge was an important cross-border infrastructure project jointly valued and promoted by both leaders.

North Korean Premier Pak Thae-song also delivered a video speech to the event, Xinhua reported, though the content of his address was not released.

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The opening of the bridge has also drawn close attention from South Korea.

An official from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said that the opening was the first tangible implementation of the agreements reached at the North Korea-China summit in June.

Seoul was monitoring whether this would lead to substantive measures to further promote North Korea-China relations, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.