Could the New Yalu River Bridge be used to circumvent sanctions on North Korea? Unification Ministry: “Hard to say for certain”

[Financial News] The New Yalu River Bridge, whose opening had been delayed for 12 years, opened on the 15th, four months after the North Korea-China summit. Construction officially began in late December 2010, and the bridge was completed around October 2014, but its opening was delayed. However, it was reported that the two sides agreed to open it at a summit last June in Pyongyang between Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
A Unification Ministry official described the bridge’s opening as “effectively the first case of an agreement reached at the June North Korea-China summit being visibly implemented.” The ministry expects the New Yalu River Bridge to serve as important infrastructure for transportation and logistics between North Korea and China.
The opening of the bridge is expected to spur people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, including group tours by Chinese visitors. Until 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, around 300,000 Chinese tourists visited North Korea annually on average. Since then, the entry of Chinese tourists into North Korea has remained restricted for six years.
Concerns have also been raised that the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge could undermine sanctions on North Korea. The bridge is an approximately 3-kilometer-long, two-way, four-lane road bridge connecting Sinuiju in North Korea with Dandong in China’s Liaoning Province.
A Unification Ministry official said, “Since not all trade between North Korea and China has violated sanctions on North Korea, it would be difficult to say that the sanctions will be undermined by the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge.” 


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