North Korean leader Kim Jong Un returned from a surprise one-day trip to the Chinese border city of Dandong, North Korean state media said on Sunday. He crossed the border to inaugurate the long-delayed New Yalu River Bridge.
The four-lane crossing was built more than a decade ago and left unused because connecting infrastructure was missing on the North Korean side. It is expected to raise bilateral trade by carrying heavy cargo and containers around the clock.
The trip is Kim’s first to China in more than a year and is described as a move to reaffirm close economic and strategic relations with Beijing. Analysts see it as an effort to balance Pyongyang’s foreign policy after years in which military and security cooperation with Russia, including troop and weaponry support for the war in Ukraine, took priority. The visit also points to a delicate balancing act as Pyongyang has deepened military ties with Russia over the past two years. Beijing and Pyongyang have been seeking stronger economic links ahead of a regional trip by US President Donald Trump next month.
Kim met Wang Huning, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, who passed on greetings from President Xi Jinping. They discussed wider practical cooperation in trade and industry and jointly toured a local vehicle factory.
Kim paid tribute at a memorial to Chinese soldiers who fought with North Korean forces in the 1950–53 Korean War, a day before the anniversary of China entering the war on Pyongyang’s side. State media called the relationship an unbreakable bond forged in that conflict between North Korea and the US-backed South, and noted that the two Koreas remain technically at war because the fighting ended in an armistice without a peace treaty.
The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim said the North Korean people would forever remember fighting alongside the Chinese people and would pass on generational gratitude to those who helped the revolution with blood. Footage from state television KRT showed him viewing an archival photograph of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, with Mao Zedong.