Bridge completes amid North Korean arms and troop support for Ukraine war
Russia and North Korea opened the first road bridge across their shared border on Monday, a 1-kilometer span over the Tumen River linking the border city of Rason in North Korea to Khasan in Russia’s Far East, both governments said.
The Russian government said in a statement that the two-lane bridge can carry up to 300 vehicles a day through a newly built border crossing point. Inauguration ceremonies took place simultaneously in both cities, with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and North Korean Premier Pak Thae Song attending via video link.
“I am convinced that the expansion of transport infrastructure near the border will give a powerful boost to the further development of trade, economic, technological, scientific and cultural cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Mishustin said.
Pak said the bridge’s completion is “a significant event adding a new dynamic movement to the overall bilateral cooperation,” according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency.
Photographs released by the government of Russia’s Primorsky Krai region showed vehicles crossing the span on Monday. The bridge is named after Yakov Novichenko, a Soviet officer credited with saving North Korean founding leader Kim Il-sung.
The crossing opens amid deepening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. North Korea has supplied ammunition and troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, receiving economic and military assistance in return. North Korea has been receiving Russian tourists since February 2024 as pandemic-era restrictions have eased, and KCNA said the bridge would promote tourism, human exchange and commodity circulation.
North Korea and Russia are already connected by a railway bridge and air service. The two governments agreed in 2024 to construct an automobile bridge over the Tumen River, which runs along North Korea’s borders with both Russia and China. Construction began last year.