SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in China on Saturday, visiting the neighbouring country via a newly opened bridge, a South Korean government official said.
Kim arrived in Dandong through the New Yalu River Bridge connecting North Korea and China, the official said on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak publicly about the matter.
A spokesperson for South Korea's Unification Ministry did not have an immediate comment. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China and North Korea opened the 3-km (2-mile) New Yalu River Bridge, their most significant land border crossing, this month after a long delay, aiming to rejuvenate trade and commerce after years of strained ties and pandemic-related disruptions.
A visit by Kim now is consistent with the current phase of closer economic ties and more frequent high-level exchanges between China and North Korea, said Lu Chao, an expert in China-North Korea relations at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, a Chinese government think-tank in Shenyang.
"The opening of the bridge has resolved a major bottleneck in China-North Korea trade logistics," Lu told Reuters. "With the logistics constraint eased, bilateral trade is likely to increase further."
The bridge is expected to help move heavy equipment, raw materials and energy products that North Korea needs for development. The opening is the latest sign of warming ties between Beijing and Pyongyang, after two summits between their leaders in the past 13 months.
Kim's last known visit to China was in September 2025, to attend the 80th Victory Day celebrations in Beijing, when he held a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi made a state visit to North Korea in June.
"It is too early to divine Kim’s intentions because he is only in Dandong," said Christopher Green, a Korea specialist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. "Will there be a Xi-Kim summit? Probably - it would be surprising if there were not. However, nothing is certain at this stage."
China, which fought alongside North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War, is Pyongyang's main economic and diplomatic backer and accounts for most of its official trade. However, North Korea has drawn closer to Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which analysts say has reduced Pyongyang's reliance on Beijing.
US President Donald Trump has been eager to jump-start talks with North Korea, but US and South Korean officials see fading chances of him meeting Kim this year, Reuters reported on Friday.
China hosts a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum next month in Shenzhen, which Trump is expected to attend.- Reuters
