China-North Korea Relations · Full chronicle and history

According to Yonhap News Agency and Reuters, on October 24 Kim Jong-un arrived in Dandong, Liaoning, via the new Yalu River Bridge, visiting China again after more than a year, and State Council Premier Li Qiang met with him in Dandong.

On October 24, Kim Jong Un traveled by special train across the New Yalu River Bridge to visit Dandong, China, marking a significant development in high-level exchanges between the two countries since the bridge opened.

Kyodo News reported, citing diplomatic sources, that strict traffic controls were imposed around the Dandong Yalu River Bridge and museums related to the Korean War during Kim Jong-un's visit on October 24, and hotel bookings were restricted.

According to data submitted by the South Korean Ministry of Unification to the National Assembly, the New Yalu River Bridge opened to traffic on October 15. Satellite images from October 22 identified about 280 trucks waiting for inspection at the North Korean customs facility, with an additional 6 container trucks entering North Korea from the Chinese side.

According to reports from AFP and Radio France Internationale, the new Yalu River bridge connecting China and North Korea officially went into operation on Thursday, with trucks beginning to cross the bridge. Chinese Premier Li Qiang attended and delivered a speech. The opening of the bridge further strengthened North Korea's ties with its neighbors, drawing the attention of Dandong residents, who expressed hope of visiting the opposite bank.

According to a report by France's Radio France Internationale citing Les Échos, the new China–North Korea Yalu River bridge has officially gone into operation 12 years after it was completed. North Korea's move is intended to increase trade with China, while also cautiously avoiding excessive political dependence on Beijing.

According to Radio France Internationale, the new bridge across the Yalu River connecting China and North Korea officially opened to traffic on Thursday, October 15, 2026. The bridge was completed in 2014, but its opening was delayed multiple times due to various factors. A month earlier, the first road bridge between North Korea and Russia had already opened.

According to Radio France Internationale (RFI), South Korean experts have analyzed that the official opening of the new Yalu River Bridge further strengthens North Korea’s economic and logistical dependence on China, drawing attention to the impact on China-North Korea border trade and geopolitics.

According to Radio France Internationale (RFI), the new bridge across the Yalu River between China and North Korea is scheduled to officially open on Thursday. The opening of this new bridge will further strengthen transportation and economic and trade exchanges between the two countries.

On October 14, Xinhua News Agency announced that the New Yalu River Bridge connecting Dandong, China, and Sinuiju, North Korea, will officially open on October 15, with both sides holding a joint opening ceremony. The bridge had been idle for about 12 years after its completion in October 2014. The construction costs were fully covered by the Chinese side, and the opening was long delayed because the North Korean side failed to complete the connecting roads and customs facilities in time.

On October 8, Reuters visited Dandong and found that most shops in the Guomenwan Trade Zone near the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge were vacant. A manager stated that the opening of the bridge had little to do with the local area.

Kim Jong-un rarely visited Dandong alone and was received by Wang Huning; analysts believe this may involve military cooperation between China and North Korea and plans for a special economic zone.

According to reports, a North Korean hacker in China was captured by Chinese authorities while traveling from Inner Mongolia to Mongolia. After being interrogated for about six months, he was handed over to the North Korean Consulate General in Shenyang and then transferred to the embassy in Beijing, where he was held underground for about a year. In 2023, he was wrapped in a full-body plaster cast disguised as a patient and put on a flight to Pyongyang, and he is reportedly dead in North Korea.

On the 78th anniversary of the founding of North Korea, Xi Jinping sent a letter saying that he would continue to strengthen strategic guidance over China-DPRK relations, while Putin sent a letter saying he would carry out the closest joint work with Kim Jong-un and strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership. Kim Jong-un published the congratulatory letters on the front page of North Korean media.

According to the Lude Society program, the China-North Korea Yalu River highway bridge, whose construction began in 2011 and was halted by the North Korean side in 2016, has resumed construction after a ten-year stoppage. The Chinese side of the bridge had already been completed, and the North Korean side appears to have recently moved to finish its section.

CCTV’s “News Broadcast” reported that the meeting between Wang Huning and Kim Jong-un mainly used medium close-up shots, with fewer full venue layouts shown.

Wang Huning, member of the CCP Central Committee Politburo Standing Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, led a Chinese delegation to meet Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang; the Korean Central News Agency released related photos the next day.

During Xi Jinping's visit to North Korea, the highest-level figures of the CCP's Party, government, CPPCC and NPC, as well as Xi Jinping himself as chairman of the Central Military Commission, were all said to have been involved in the relevant arrangements.

Xi Jinping received North Korean Premier Pak Thae Chol, and the two sides held a meeting.

CCP officials such as Li Qiang, Zhao Leji and Wang Huning visited North Korea separately one after another, and the video said the level of this visit reached a full-scale mobilization of all four leadership teams.

During Zhao Leji's visit to North Korea, it is said that a seating arrangement was also adopted in which Kim Jong-un sat alone while Chinese officials were seated in rows opposite him.

Xi Jinping visited the Central Cadre School of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang, where he planted trees and unveiled a monument with Kim Jong Un. This symbolic power transfer marker has been pointed out as resembling an abdication during one's lifetime.

Xi Jinping paid a 27-hour visit to North Korea. The joint communique lacked mentions of nuclear weapons and military alliance cooperation, reaching consensus only on commemorative facilities and other minor matters.

In June 2026, Xi Jinping and his wife visited North Korea, accompanied by Cai Qi, director of the General Office of the CCP Central Committee.

Overseas leaks claim that Peng Liyuan has been effectively placed under house arrest at Fengze Garden in Zhongnanhai since mid-2024 and has not left the country for two years; this trip to Pyongyang is a specially approved farewell performance, and her daughter Xi Mingze and grandchild were left in Beijing as hostages.

Shortly before the announcement of Xi Jinping's visit to North Korea, North Korea suddenly launched several short-range ballistic missiles on May 26, signaling to the outside world that its schedule is not constrained by external agendas.

Between 1950 and 1953, China dispatched troops to support North Korea against South Korea and the United Nations Command, becoming one of the major external wars China participated in after 1949.