BEIJING: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the Chinese border city of Dandong last Saturday, Xinhua has reported, crossing a newly opened bridge in a symbolic move seen as highlighting Beijing and Pyongyang’s push to expand trade ties.
Kim was accompanied during his visit by China’s fourth-highest-ranked official Wang Huning, who conveyed greetings from President Xi Jinping, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Kim arrived in Dandong via the New Yalu River Bridge connecting North Korea and China, a South Korean government official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
The new bridge is expected to help move heavy equipment, raw materials and energy products that North Korea needs for development.
Its official opening this month is the latest sign of warming ties between Beijing and Pyongyang, after two summits between their leaders in the past 13 months.
Xinhua said Wang accompanied Kim to a Korean War memorial in Dandong, where the North Korean leader paid tribute to Chinese People’s Volunteer Army soldiers who fought alongside North Korea during the three-year conflict.
Kim also toured a Dandong automobile factory, it said.
China and North Korea opened the 3km 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.
“Kim has given his imprimatur to bilateral trade by crossing the New Yalu River Bridge to enter China,” said Christopher Green, a Korea specialist at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
He said the delayed opening had shown how dysfunctional the relationship had become.
During a meeting last Saturday, Wang told Kim that China was ready to use the bridge’s opening to expand personnel exchanges and economic and trade cooperation, Xinhua said.
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 said. “With the logistics constraint eased, bilateral trade is likely to increase further.” — Reuters
