Russia and North Korea open first road bridge across the Tumen River
The Russian Federation — an aggressor state — and North Korea have opened the first road bridge across the Tumen River on their shared border. The one-kilometre crossing connected the Russian settlement of Khasan in the Far East with North Korea's Tumangang, The Guardian World reports.
New border crossing
The bridge is located in a remote and sparsely populated section of the border, several miles from the coast. During the opening ceremony, which Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin joined via video link, he said the new crossing would promote tourism development and job creation.
According to Mishustin, expanding cross-border transport infrastructure should boost trade and economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation between the two countries. After the ceremony, columns of vehicles crossed the bridge from both sides.
The road bridge was named after Soviet officer Yakov Novichenko, who is credited with saving North Korean founder Kim Il Sung from an assassination attempt. Russia and North Korea are already connected by a railway bridge across the Tumen River, while regular flights also operate between Vladivostok and Pyongyang.
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Warnings over military logistics
Ukrainian human rights organisations warned that the new crossing could become an inconspicuous military logistics corridor between the two countries. The Truth Hounds organisation believes that in the future the bridge could be used to move North Korean military personnel, construction brigades and officials to Russia, and Russian technologies and resources in the opposite direction, with a lower risk of detection.
Ties between Moscow and Pyongyang have strengthened significantly since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. According to the publication, North Korea sent thousands of military personnel to Russia's Kursk region to help Moscow repel the Ukrainian incursion launched there in 2024.
South Korean intelligence believes that Russia, in return, transferred air defence missiles, electronic warfare equipment, drones and spy satellite technologies to North Korea.
