Kim Jong Un China Visit: Crosses New Yalu Bridge to Meet Li Qiang

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un crossed into China on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, using the newly opened New Yalu River Bridge to reach the border city of Dandong, South Korean officials said. Chinese Premier Li Qiang met him there. The Kim Jong Un China visit is his first in about a year and his sixth overall.

A South Korean government source told Yonhap News Agency that Kim arrived in Dandong, in Liaoning province, after crossing the bridge, which North Koreans call the New Amnok River Bridge. South Korea’s Unification Ministry also said Kim appeared to have entered China that way, according to AP. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately comment.

Kim Jong Un China Visit: A Short Trip Built Around a Bridge

Yun Geon-young, a ruling Democratic Party lawmaker on South Korea’s National Assembly intelligence committee, said Kim met Li and was expected to return home the same day, Yonhap’s Korean-language service reported. A source cited by Yonhap called the visit “very short.” Kim was not expected to meet President Xi Jinping, who is set to attend a plenary meeting of the Communist Party’s Central Committee in Beijing from Oct. 26 to 29.

That makes this trip different from Kim’s five earlier visits to China, each of which included a summit with Xi. His last trip was in September 2025, when he attended Beijing’s 80th anniversary Victory Day parade. Xi made a state visit to Pyongyang in June 2026.

Why the New Yalu River Bridge Matters

The four-lane, 3,026-meter bridge links Dandong with the North Korean city of Sinuiju. China paid about $310 million to build it, and it was finished in 2014, but it sat unused for years because North Korea had not built connecting roads and customs facilities, Yonhap reported. It formally opened on Oct. 15, as covered in our report on the New Yalu River Bridge opening. North Korea’s KCNA said the ceremony featured video messages from North Korean Premier Pak Thae Song and Li Qiang ✓Claim by KCNA (North Korean state media); confirmed by Yonhap.

The bridge is designed for around-the-clock two-way traffic, including heavy trucks and container shipments, according to Al Jazeera. “The opening of the bridge has resolved a major bottleneck in China-North Korea trade logistics,” Lu Chao of the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, a Chinese government think tank, told Reuters. China is by far North Korea’s largest trading partner.

The Korean War Anniversary and the APEC Question

The timing carries symbolism. Kim arrived a day before Oct. 25, which Beijing and Pyongyang mark as the anniversary of Chinese troops’ first combat in the 1950-53 Korean War. China calls that intervention the war to “resist America and aid Korea.”

Analysts quoted by AP and Al Jazeera described the trip as part of Kim’s increasingly assertive foreign policy, aligning Pyongyang with Beijing and Moscow against Washington in what he calls a “new Cold War.” North Korea has moved closer to Russia since 2022, sending troops and munitions, a relationship explored in our story on what North Korea has learned from the Ukraine war.

The visit also comes ahead of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. President Donald Trump has said he might meet Kim on the sidelines, though on Oct. 19 he said he “doesn’t know” whether that will happen, Chosun Biz reported. Yun said the trip appeared to serve two purposes: signaling openness to a U.S.-North Korea summit and marking the bridge opening.

What to Watch Next

North Korean state media usually reports Kim’s foreign trips after the fact, so details of what he and Li discussed may come first from Pyongyang. Trade figures through Dandong in the coming months will show whether the bridge brings the boost Beijing and Pyongyang have promised, and whether it affects enforcement of United Nations sanctions on North Korea. Kim’s recent weapons activity, including a hypersonic missile launch at Wonsan, keeps the region watching closely.

Featured image: Dandong, China, on the Yalu River. Photo: Baycrest, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources

• Yonhap News Agency: N. Korea’s Kim arrives in China’s Dandong via newly opened bridge
• Yonhap (Korean): Kim Jong Un makes surprise Dandong visit, meets Li Qiang
• AP News: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits China, South Korea says
• Al Jazeera: Kim Jong Un visits China via newly opened bridge
• Chosun Biz: Kim Jong-un meets China’s Li Qiang as APEC stirs speculation