World News
Kim Jong Un crosses the New Yalu River Bridge into China on his first visit since 2025
By Staff Writer | 25 October 2026
The North Korean leader met China's top political adviser, Wang Huning, in the border city of Dandong on Saturday. The 3km bridge opened in mid-October, twelve years after China finished building it.
Kim Jong Un crossed into China on Saturday over the New Yalu River Bridge, the crossing that links the two countries at the Chinese border city of Dandong, and met one of Beijing's most senior officials there.
China's state news agency said Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the national committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, accompanied Kim on his visit to Dandong, in Liaoning province. Wang passed on President Xi Jinping's greetings and best wishes, and the two men toured a car factory before Wang saw Kim off at the bridge. South Korea's unification ministry also confirmed the crossing.
Kim said his country was ready to deepen its ties with Beijing, according to the state news agency.
stands ready to work with China to carry forward their historical friendship and expand practical cooperation, thereby delivering tangible benefits to the peoples of both countries
Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea
A bridge that waited twelve years
The four-lane bridge was completed in 2014 but stood unused because North Korea had not built the connecting roads and customs facilities on its side. It opened officially in mid-October. The two governments pledged to strengthen strategic communication and cooperation, and to expand people-to-people exchanges and trade through the new crossing.
China is North Korea's largest trading partner. In early September, North Korea and Russia opened the first road bridge across their own short border, so Pyongyang now has road links to both of its main backers. North Korea's trade with Russia largely involves military supplies.
Timing and what comes next
This is Kim's sixth visit to China and his first since September 2025, when he attended a military parade in Beijing. Xi visited Pyongyang in June, his first trip there in seven years. The visit falls on the anniversary of China's entry into the Korean War in 1950, and comes before Xi and other senior officials gather in Beijing on Monday for the fifth plenary session of the party's Central Committee.
Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul remain strained. Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, has issued about ten statements directed at Seoul since late September. South Korea's unification ministry has called that pace unusual, and she has also announced plans to resume loudspeaker broadcasts at the border.
Xi will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November.