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The new China-DPRK Yalu River bridge officially opened to traffic on Thursday, with both sides jointly holding an opening ceremony on this cross-border artery. Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Pak Thae-song, premier of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Cabinet, both delivered a video speech at the opening ceremony of the bridge, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The cable-stayed bridge over the Yalu River serves as a cross-border transport link between the city of Dandong in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province and the city of Sinuiju in North Pyongan Province in the DPRK.
In his video address at the opening ceremony, Chinese Premier Li Qiang called on China and the DPRK to take the opening of the new China-DPRK Yalu River bridge as an opportunity to continuously optimize port clearance, enhance connectivity, tap the potential for cooperation in border areas, and improve the well-being of the two peoples.
“The bridge is bound to become a new landmark symbolizing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK,” Li said, per Xinhua.
Noting that the bridge is an important cross-border infrastructure project that General Secretary Xi Jinping and General Secretary Kim Jong-un have jointly cared about and promoted, Li said that with the joint efforts of both sides, the opening of the bridge will not only effectively promote economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, but also further enhance personnel exchanges and strengthen the emotional bond between the two peoples.
According to on-site video footage released by China News Service, during the opening ceremony on Thursday, the bridge was lined with the national flags of China and the DPRK. Lines of trucks from the two countries drove towards each other and sounded their horns as a salute to jointly mark the opening of the bridge.
The new double-pylon and double-cable-plane bridge features a 28.5-meter-wide deck designed with four lanes for two-way traffic, while its water navigation clearance is designed for vessels of up to the 3,000-tonne class.
Dandong boasts China’s largest border trade port with the DPRK. Before the new road bridge, the Yalu River Bridge, also known as the China-DPRK Friendship Bridge, served as a combined road-rail bridge. The old one, however, could only accommodate trucks weighing no more than 20 tonnes for one-way road traffic.
China and the DPRK in 2010 agreed to build a new road bridge downstream from the old one. Source: Global Times.
