On the morning of the 10th, the view of China-China Friendship Bridge (left) and Yalu River Bridge as seen from Dandong, Liaoning Province, which is the border area between North Korea and China. North Korea’s Sinuiju can be seen across the bridge. yunhap newsNorth Korea, which has been closed for the past two years, has sent a freight train to China across the border. The North Korean freight train, which departed from Sinuiju on the 16th, crossed the Chojung-Uui Bridge and entered Dandong, a city on the Chinese border at 9:10 am.
It is the first time in a year and a half that a North Korean freight train has entered China. North Korea closed its borders at the end of January 2020 due to the spread of Corona 19 in China, but freight trains are said to have run through the summer.
It is unknown whether the freight train that arrived in Dandong brought goods from North Korea, but it is known that they will return to North Korea on the 17th with goods designated by the North.
Dandong Station, Liaoning Province, where quarantine standards have been strengthened due to the spread of COVID-19 in China. yunhap newsThe interest is whether the freight train operation will be a one-time thing or will be lost due to the full-fledged resumption of North Korea-China overland trade. Last year, the volume of trade between North Korea and China was one-tenth of about $3 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak, and North Korea is in desperate need of resuming land trade with China.
However, first of all, it is predicted that the possibility of regular and frequent occurrence of Corona 19 is low because it is spreading in China and North Korea’s quarantine is also quite thorough.
A diplomatic source in China said that this freight train does not appear to be a one-off, but predicted that it would not be easy to travel between the two countries due to strict quarantine procedures.
Weibo CaptureMeanwhile, it is noteworthy that the North Korean freight train entered China.
In November of last year, the freight train between North Korea and China even went to the brink of resumption, but it was canceled as the Corona situation in northeast China became severe.
It is true that Beijing diplomats did not put any weight on the possibility of resuming freight train operations as soon as possible, saying that the quarantine situation is what North Korea is most concerned about in human and material exchanges with China.
However, North Korea’s cargo train operation was made while the Korean Peninsula was again attracting the world’s attention as the South’s Moon Jae-in administration’s declaration of an end to the war had practically failed and North Korea test-fired missiles one after another.
Following its own sanctions related to North Korea’s missile launch, the United States was fiddling with additional sanctions cards at the UN Security Council level.
The North Korean freight train operation seems to have the effect of showing off its close relationship with China in the new Cold War structure sparked by the US-China conflict while showing off that China is behind the US sanctions.
