Sino-NK

The New Yalu river Bridge connecting Dandong and Sinuiju. | Image: Sino-NK.

The opening of the New Yalu River Bridge between Dandong in China and Sinuiju in North Korea in mid-October has come with a great deal of speculation: how will its opening, delayed 12 years, impact trade between these two communist neighbours?

Much has been made of the bridge’s four lanes, two each way, which sharply increases potential capacity compared to the original bridge spanning the Yalu River between central Dandong and Sinuiju. Readers of Sino-NK will note the Dandong city government stated in its 2026 work report its intention to open the new bridge this year, a then strong indication of its forthcoming inauguration.

Two weeks after its official opening, there are as yet few concrete data points with which to assess the likely trajectory of economic activity across this main border crossing, but already indicators are emerging.

Endorsement by Kim Jong-un

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s crossing of the New Yalu Bridge on 24 October, just nine days after its official opening, marks the most significant endorsement of the project possible. The longstanding delays to the project had mostly been deemed due to the DPRK’s failure to build infrastructure on the Sinuiju side after Kim first came to power in Pyongyang, and relations with China remained strained. The 12-year wait for the bridge to open is widely attributed considered a symptom of the poor state of ties during the previous decade.

In the leader-dominated politics and bilateral relations of China and North Korea, appearances by the secretary-general carry significant weight, which is well understood in Dandong. A decade ago, when Dandong built and opened a new hotel, restaurant and apartment building on man-made Moonlight Island (月亮岛) on the Yalu River in 2015, sales struggled amid then poor relations between China and China. When Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping finally held their first bilateral meeting three years later, a giant screen on the island beamed footage as advertising to spur sales and economic activity.

Boost to Local Companies

Although Kim’s visit to a car factory in Dandong was noted in Chinese official reports, the significance of this for the local economy has not been fully reported in international news articles and academic analyses. Kim visited Dandong Huanghai Automobile (丹东黄海汽车), a subsidiary of Liaoning SG Automotive Group (辽宁曙光汽车集团股份有限公司), a Chinese company which has witnessed financial turmoil in part due to the long-delayed opening of the bridge. The company indirectly owns 70 percent of the Guomen Building (国门大厦), a white elephant which has cost Liaoning SG Automotive Group nearly CNY 400 million (USD 60 million) thus far in land and construction costs. Construction has stalled since 2015 as the bridge failed to open. “The Commercial Area A (Guomen Building) project was initiated because of the New Yalu River Road Bridge,” legal advisors for the company said in 2025.

Infrastructure around the New Yalu River Bridge and the Guomen Building remained partially built but incomplete for years, as seen from under the bridge in Dandong New District during construction inactivity in 2016. | Image: Sino-NK.

In 2021, Liaoning SG Automotive Group sold off its controlling stake in Dandong Hangao Port Logistics (丹东汉高口岸物流有限公司) to the Dandong city government for just under CNY 150 million (USD 22.5 million) in an apparent bid to recoup some capital as the bridge opening continued to stall, and the DPRK remained sealed off during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dandong Huanghai Automobile, owned by Liaoning SG Automotive Group, was established during the Korean War as a military repair factory in Dandong, and in recent years has produced passenger buses, pickup trucks and commercial vehicles. Chinese analysts online have predicted its vehicles may be ordered in greater volumes for border tourism transport and port shuttle services following the opening of the new bridge, while some media reports suggested North Korea might source vehicles from the company. Kim wished the company and its factory workers “greater success”, according to a report in KCNA (reproduced here by Korea News Service in Japan).

Investors in the Liaoning SG Automotive Group stock appear to have anticipated the timing of the bridge opening, and Kim’s visit. On October 13, the day before the bridge opening was first reported by Xinhua, the company’s stock soared 4.76 percent on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, its biggest gain of the opening period. On October 23, the day before Kim’s visit, the stock price jumped a further 10.18 percent to CNY 3.14 per share. This appears to be Liaoning SG Automotive Group’s highest single-day gain in more than 25 years since soon after its IPO in 2000, according to stock data analysed by Sino-NK. The Chosun Daily in South Korea was one of the few news outlets to notice the second stock surge around Kim’s visit. It reported that a Chinese social media post claiming Kim’s visit to Dandong Huanghai Automobile was briefly posted, shared and then deleted on the morning of 24 October. This does not explain the sharp rise in the stock price the previous day, however. Kim’s tardiness in opening the bridge may have caused a severe financial headache for Liaoning SG Automotive Group over more than a decade, but his appearance at its factory in Dandong last week eased some of the pain.

Other Chinese companies have also benefitted from the bridge opening already. At the opening ceremony, Jiefang Motors (解放汽车), a company owned by the Chinese central government, was selected as the sole supplier of trucks to cross the bridge that day. The company has used the event to promote its FAW Jiefang JH6 cargo trucks, circulating promotional articles in the Chinese private news media.

Petrochina Natural Gas Sales Liaoning Deputy General Manager Zou Bocheng (邹博丞) said the bridge opening offered new opportunities to sell natural gas along the China-North Korea border. Chairwoman Yu Haiyan (于海艳) of Panjin Liheng (盘锦利恒环保科技有限公司), a Liaoning company, said the new bridge should remove logistical constraints in getting products to North Korea. The company sells laundry detergents, oil and grease cleaners, and other cleaning products to the DPRK. There has been little buzz about North Korean exports, or what the bridge opening and Kim’s endorsement may mean for North Korean workers in Liaoning province, but the desire of certain Chinese industries to increase exports to the DPRK should remain constant.

Easing Logistics

One of the key areas of speculation regarding the new bridge opening: will it ease and increase China-North Korea trade? Before the bridge opened, and since customs introduced 24-hour staff availability on national holidays in recent years, truck drivers in Dandong reported they could do one round trip per day across the old bridge. In recent years, the old bridge had been configured for one return journey, switching the traffic flow daily – it only has one lane and therefore permits travel in just one direction by road. Such had been the situation since the bridge was built nearly 90 years ago, by the occupying Japanese, in 1937.

The New Yalu Bridge has two lanes in each direction and a central railroad. Daily NK reported that the new structure permits travel times, including customs, inspections and actual clearance of the 3km-long structure in more than three hours during its first weeks of usage. It reported that customs officials on the North Korean side were experiencing initial difficulties with a new administrative system.

However, some Chinese trade companies expect crossing times to speed up. One-stop inspection facilities were expected to speed up crossings to less than one hour, according to China’s First Commercial Vehicle Network. Another company, Wuchang Logistics, anticipates a 30 percent reduction in overall logistics costs following the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge. Whether these predictions in China’s too-often optimistic media are realised should soon become clear.

Existing Trade Surge

A cosmetics factory in Sinuiju. | Image: Sino-NK.

The opening of the new bridge comes amid record bilateral trade between Liaoning province, where Dandong serves as the dominant trade hub, and North Korea. In the first nine months of this year up to September, the month before the new bridge opened, bilateral trade between this border province and the DPRK soared more than 35 percent compared to the same period in 2025, according to official Liaoning Customs data.

Over the same period, North Korean exports to Liaoning have more than doubled, rising nearly 102 percent. Trade with Liaoning created an additional CNY 1 billion (USD 138.12 million) in income for North Korea compared to last year. As reported previously by Sino-NK, key North Korean exports to China include tungsten ore, wigs and fake eyelashes.

As in 2025, Liaoning is on course to record another year of record trade with North Korea. Whether the opening of the new bridge further accelerates this economic activity should become clear by January when Liaoning Customs releases full-year data for 2026.