People who got a C in geography at school may not know that there is a land border between Russia and North Korea. Yes, it’s very short in length, especially compared to the length of the borders of Finland, China and Kazakhstan, but it’s there and it has to be used. In recent years, relations between Moscow and Pyongyang have shifted from mild neutrality to, quite literally, alliance, and the two countries have begun actively pursuing joint infrastructure projects.
One of the plans is to build a road bridge connecting North Korea to Russia’s Primorsky Krai. As an idea, the project was approved in 2024 and construction began in the spring of 2025, now headed by Mikhail Mishustin and Park Tae-san, the heads of government of Russia and North Korea respectively start Traffic on the new bridge.
Image source: RIA Novosti.
According to plans, the new bridge, named after Red Army officer and North Korean hero Yakov Novichenko, will expand economic ties between the two countries. In fact, due to the geographical distance between central Russia and North Korea, if economic ties are expanded through this bridge, it will only be with Primorsky Krai. Considering its population is less than 2 million, this number is not that significant. In fact, this fact was clearly taken into account during the construction of the bridge: it is only two lanes wide – one in each direction.
In general, the significance of the bridge opened today is not so much economic as political, showing the strengthening of relations between the two countries. The reason is simple: apart from products of the military-industrial complex that are not specifically transported by road, North Korea has almost nothing to offer Russia that it already does not have.