North Korea and Russia open their first road bridge, a symbol of expanding ties

MOSCOW – North Korea and Russia opened their first road bridge on Sept 7 in a carefully choreographed display of friendship, a structure that spans the Tumen River and which both sides cast as an important milestone in their deepening strategic partnership.

The first flag-adorned trucks trundled across the 1km-long, two-lane bridge as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and North Korean Premier Pak Thae Song tuned in via video link to address workers and government officials from both countries.

Construction of the new bridge, which had been under discussion for years, began in April 2025 after the project was agreed upon during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea in 2024. There are already direct air and rail links between Moscow and Pyongyang, but until Sept 7 there had not been a proper road link.

Instead, since 1959 and under a special arrangement, planks had been placed on the nearby rail bridge – for decades the sole border crossing point – to move vehicles across the border between the two countries.

“I am convinced that the expansion of cross-border transport infrastructure will provide a powerful impetus for the further development of trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation,” said Mishustin, who added that ties between Moscow and Pyongyang were “at an unprecedented high level” and called the opening of the bridge “a genuinely historic event”.

The construction of the bridge was not merely an engineering project, he said, but “a new symbol of friendship”.

Mishustin said up to 300 vehicles would be able to cross every day and that the bridge would be linked to Russia’s federal road network and have easy access to the transport corridor that runs from the far eastern city of Vladivostok to St Petersburg.

Trucks would begin using the bridge immediately to transport cargo, the Russian government said. By the end of 2026, the bridge would be fully operational and could be used for passenger traffic too.

The bridge was built near an existing “Friendship Bridge”, a rail bridge which was commissioned in 1959 after the Korean War. Symbolically, the new bridge is named after Yakov Novichenko, a Red Army soldier whom Pyongyang credits with protecting the life of North Korea’s first leader Kim Il Sung in 1946 by intercepting a grenade thrown at him and others.

The bridge showed that the allies had established key infrastructure to expand economic cooperation, including people-to-people exchanges, tourism and trade in goods, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency reported on Sept 8.

Ties between the two countries have grown stronger since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, with Pyongyang sending thousands of troops to Russia’s Kursk region to help repel a 2024 Ukrainian incursion there.

Mishustin made a reference to that in his speech on Sept 7, referring to “the Korean heroes who, only recently, fought shoulder to shoulder with our soldiers and defended Russian soil”.

The bridge underscores how economic sanctions against North Korea are becoming meaningless, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the South Korea-based Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

“While North Korea is trying to maximise its own interests, Russia has secured a direct road route for the transport of military supplies, ammunition and manpower, including troops, for its prolonged war in Ukraine.” REUTERS