Visit by train over New Yalu River Bridge marks North Korean leader’s first known trip abroad in more than a year
Kim Jong-un has travelled to China over a newly opened bridge marking the North Korean leader’s first known trip abroad in more than a year, South Korean officials have said.
A government source told the Yonhap news agency on Saturday that Kim had arrived in the Chinese border city of Dandong, in Liaoning province, after taking a train from Pyongyang to Sinuiju and crossing the New Yalu River Bridge.
Yonhap also reported that the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, had travelled to the city. Kim’s trip was not announced in advance and had not been confirmed by Pyongyang or Beijing by Saturday evening.
China will mark the anniversary on Sunday of its entry into the 1950-53 Korean war on the North’s side.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said on Saturday that traffic controls had been imposed around the bridge and near a museum devoted to China’s role in the war, and that hotel bookings nearby had been restricted.
Diplomatic sources told the agency the measures were linked to a visit by a senior North Korean official.
The 3km bridge opened in mid-October, 12 years after China finished building it, after being held up by delays on the North Korean side. In early September, North Korea and Russia opened the first road bridge across their own short border leaving Pyongyang newly linked by road to its main backers.
The trip is Kim’s sixth visit to China and his first since September 2025, when he attended a military parade in Beijing alongside the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin. Xi visited Pyongyang in June, his first trip there in seven years.
Relations with South Korea, meanwhile, have deteriorated. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, has issued about 10 statements criticising Seoul since late September, a frequency South Korea’s unification ministry has called unusual, and has also announced plans to resume loudspeaker broadcasts at the border within days.
Xi will host the Apec summit in Shenzhen on 18-19 November, which has fuelled speculation about a meeting between Kim and Donald Trump.
Reuters reported on Friday, however, that US and South Korean officials see little chance of Kim meeting the US president this year.
