North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China on Saturday and inaugurated a new bridge linking the two countries, saying he hoped to expand cooperation with Beijing. South Korea's Unification Ministry and China's Xinhua News Agency said he arrived in the border city of Dandong after crossing the newly opened bridge. It was his first visit to China in a year and his sixth since he took power in late 2011.
He met Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of China's Communist Party. The two toured a car factory and promised to strengthen the relationship. According to Xinhua, Kim said his country was ready to work with China to carry forward their historical friendship, expand practical cooperation and bring tangible benefits to both peoples. Wang later went with him to the bridge to see him off.
The report says Kim has sought closer ties with China, the North's traditional main ally and economic lifeline, after years of giving priority to Russia. He sent thousands of troops and conventional weapons to support President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for military and economic assistance. The visit is described as a further step in an assertive foreign policy aimed at aligning Pyongyang with Beijing and Moscow against the United States, in what he portrays as a new Cold War.
Experts said the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge this month was a symbol of stronger North Korea-China ties and of an intent to expand trade. The bridge is expected to carry two-way traffic around the clock, including container shipments and heavy cargo trucks. North Korean state media did not immediately report the visit, and China's Foreign Ministry press office did not respond to a request for confirmation. Japan's Kyodo News, citing unnamed diplomatic sources, said Chinese authorities imposed strict traffic limits in parts of Dandong and that hotel rooms in those areas could not be reserved. Japan's TBS television aired footage it said was likely Kim's motorcade, including a black limousine bearing North Korean flags.
The visit appears timed ahead of the 25 October anniversary of China's first major victory in the Korean War, days after Chinese troops crossed the Yalu River into North Korea in October 1950. The war began with North Korea's surprise attack on the South in June 1950, after which a United Nations coalition led by the United States intervened. North Korea was backed primarily by Chinese forces, with assistance from the then-Soviet air force, before a 1953 armistice left the peninsula technically at war. According to Xinhua, Kim said Saturday's visit was also meant to honour the war's dead.
Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to Pyongyang in June and expressed willingness to expand cooperation in trade, agriculture, construction and technology, while Kim described ties with China as a top strategic priority. Kim last visited Beijing in September 2025, when he met Xi and watched a military parade alongside Putin and other foreign leaders.
Kim has maintained a hard line toward Seoul and has so far rebuffed a proposal from US President Donald Trump to revive diplomacy that broke down in 2019. His government has called for Washington to abandon what it describes as a hostile policy and to drop denuclearisation as a precondition for new talks. South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers last month that it saw a 50 percent possibility of a Trump-Kim meeting on the sidelines of next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.