// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
North Korea and China open new bridge after 12-year delay
The New Yalu River Bridge spans 3km (1.9 miles) from the Chinese border city of Dandong to Sinuiju in North Korea
A long-delayed road bridge linking China and North Korea has opened, Chinese state media report, as trade ties improve between the neighbours.
China is North Korea's largest trading partner and a lifeline against heavy international sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
The New Yalu River Bridge spans 3km (1.9 miles) from the Chinese border city of Dandong to Sinuiju in North Korea, and is set to become the main land route for trade between them.
Its launch, initially slated for 2014, had been indefinitely postponed after North Korea halted construction of its roads and customs facilities, as relations with Beijing turned frosty.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, in a video address on Thursday, said the bridge was a "new landmark symbolising the traditional friendship between China and North Korea", and that the two countries were "opening a new chapter" in bilateral ties.
The New Yalu River Bridge is an alternative to the decades-old Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, which was built between 1937 and 1943 during Imperial Japan's occupation of the region.
The new bridge is an "important facility for connectivity" between the two countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday, adding that the route would "further facilitate trade and people-to-people exchanges".
Last year, bilateral trade reached $2.7bn, marking a recovery to pre-pandemic levels, mostly fuelled by Chinese exports to North Korea.
A sharp and sudden increase in trade across the border is "unlikely" as the UN sanctions on North Korea remain in effect, Kang Jun-young, a professor of Chinese studies at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, tells the BBC.