Sino-NK

Fishing boats line the bank of the Yalu River with the New Yalu River Bridge visible from the Dandong side. | Image: Sino-NK.

Amid a further warming of ties, China and the DPRK have revived transport links in recent weeks. Yet one key project remains suspended, and for more than a decade: the New Yalu River Bridge connecting Dandong with Sinuiju.

New research by Sino-NK indicates that China, at least, may be currently pushing to finally open this USD 350-million project more than at any time since its planned original opening in 2014. According to the Dandong municipal government’s little-noticed work report for 2026 released in late January, the city will “make every effort to promote the opening” of the bridge this year.

The Chinese wording is of critical importance here. The document uses the phase “全力推动开通”, or to “make every effort to promote the opening”, which denotes strong action towards this aim, in the Chinese context. Last year, by contrast, the city work report for Dandong stated that the bridge and port had “passed national inspection” (“新鸭绿江公路大桥口岸通过国家验收”), a more passive reference.

An analysis of references to the bridge by authorities in Dandong and Liaoning over the past decade indicates that this year’s city work report represents the strongest and most active language on the project detected thus far. In March 2019, the Liaoning provincial government published a policy opinion on Northeast Asian economic and trade cooperation which stated an aim to “promote the official opening of the new China-DPRK Yalu River border highway bridge and port” (“推动新中朝鸭绿江界河公路大桥和口岸正式开通”). The language here was strong, but not as markedly so as that of the Dandong 2026 work plan in that the key phrase “全力”, or “make every effort”, was missing from the 2019 document.

Furthermore, the 2019 report was specifically about regional trade, rather than a blueprint for domestic city policy as in the case of the Dandong document from January. As such, the earlier document had to mention the new bridge since it represents the largest and most costly regional trade project between China and the DPRK conceived thus far. Furthermore, the 2019 report was published on the heels of four of the five meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un held in rapid succession from 2018, a period of unprecedented high-level diplomacy between the two countries.

No other similarly urgent references by the governments of Dandong or Liaoning have been detected over the past decade on the potential opening of the bridge. That city authorities have used such active phrasing points to a renewed push by the Chinese side to open the bridge in 2026, and by extension further indicates that enduring delays originate on the other side of the Yalu River, with North Korea, as long suspected.

A rumour currently circulating in Dandong states that both sides may be aiming to open the bridge in or around Autumn of 2026. This timing aligns with China-North Korea bilateral relations protocol since October is the month both countries mark China’s entry into the Korean War in 1950.

Construction work on the bridge appears advanced, especially on the Chinese side, and is progressing in Sinuiju also. The new, large Sinuiju customs building, reportedly started in March of 2026, is now clearly visible from the Chinese side of the Yalu River, and the structure itself appears all but completed. The Chinese social media platform Douyin has seen a heavy volume of new videos posted since the end of last year which show the degree to which the Chinese side of the bridge and related infrastructure is completed, including car lanes and Public Security Bureau booths seemingly ready to receive traffic. Other short clips show the bridge lit up blue at night from the Dandong side. However, there remain few concrete indications as yet that the project may finally open in 2026, only speculation.

Market Sentiment

One indication of firm advance or insider information on an opening timeframe for the bridge circulating in China would be a sudden surge in property deals in Dandong, particularly in the New District, the location of the bridge. When the project was delayed in the second half of the previous decade, property prices in Dandong fell sharply amid significant oversupply of new residential units built to coincide with the original opening timetable in 2014. The latest housing data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics for February does show what could be the first signs of a Dandong property revival. For second-hand units below 90 square-meters, and those above 144 square-meters, Dandong came outright first and equal first respectively on price growth, or a lack of further decline, among 35 Tier-3 cities tracked across China. Still, the growth was small, and hardly an indication of a sudden boom: the price rise for small apartments in the city was just 0.1 percent compared to January, a tiny increase but nonetheless one that stands out amid China’s ongoing property crisis.

Local agents in Dandong are certainly citing the bridge, and speculation around its imminent opening, in a bid to push sales. In one video from early March, an agency calling itself Dandong Yijing Real Estate posted on Douyin: “I heard the new Bridge in Dandong is going to open to traffic next month. If it really opens, will Dandong housing prices rise again?”

A video on Douyin cites the possible opening of the bridge as a positive driver of real estate sentiment in Dandong. | Image: Douyin.

Warming Ties

North Korea for years stalled completing facilities on its side of the bridge, notably amid sour relations with China in the years prior to 2018 when Kim and Xi finally met. After the two leaders held five meetings in a little over a year, momentum was suddenly cut short with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic originating in China, and North Korea’s closure of its border in early 2020. The pandemic ended any possibility of the bridge opening as the DPRK closed itself off from the outside world.

The reopening of transport links between China and North Korea in recent weeks is not only part of the DPRK’s post-pandemic reopening, it demonstrates that China is catching up with Russia when it comes to the restart of tourism to the DPRK. The sudden resumption of train and flight services between Beijing and Pyongyang, and the first known official visit by a Chinese official to Kalma, North Korea’s new showpiece tourism destination, indicates rapid momentum on tourism and transport between the two countries.

Following the reopening of the Beijing-Pyongyang overnight train service after more than six years on 12 March, Air China has announced plans to resume weekly flights between the capitals of China and North Korea from 30 March. These initiatives follow a visit by China’s Ambassador to the DPRK Wang Yajun to the Wonsan-Kalma resort alongside the North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong-ho in mid-February. Since last summer, Chinese officials and tourists had remained strangely absent from Kalma with Russians becoming the first overseas visitors to the resort, as reported by Sino-NK.

In South Korea, newspaper opinion columns (also here) have speculated that China’s sudden embrace of North Korea correlates to the imminent arrival of US President Donald Trump in Beijing, with Xi and the CCP keen to pull its neighbour closer. Certainly, dynamics around Trump’s decision to engage Kim during the US president’s first term proved a key motive for Xi’s decision to finally meet with the North Korean leader in 2018. However, geopolitical dynamics are different this time round: Trump has more pressing foreign policy issues, not least Iran, and China appears more wary of Russia’s recent growing influence on the DPRK than it does that of the US. Speculation persists that Trump may try to engage Kim when he travels to East Asia, but there are as yet no confirmed plans for any interaction between the leaders of the US and North Korea.

What is clear: Beijing has initiated a sudden resumption of transport and logistics links to North Korea, which has been reciprocated by Pyongyang, indicating a return to pre-pandemic norms. Were this engagement to continue and extend beyond what came before Covid-19 – and with China pushing more than previously towards this aim – the New Yalu River Bridge may, finally, open.