Credit : BRICS NEWS
DANDONG, October 24, 2026 — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in China, crossing a newly opened bridge over the Yalu River on his first visit to the country in more than a year, BRICS News reported on X on Saturday.
The post, published at about 2.24pm Malaysia time and marked “JUST IN”, read: “North Korea’s Kim Jong Un arrives in China.” It was accompanied by a photograph of the North Korean leader.
https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/2113879251028176981
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, citing a government source, reported that Kim arrived in the Chinese border city of Dandong in Liaoning province after crossing the New Amnok River Bridge, as the Yalu is known in Korea. The four-lane, 3,026-metre bridge links the North Korean city of Sinuiju with Dandong. It was completed in 2014 with about US$310 million in Chinese investment, but only opened this month after years of delays on the North Korean side.
In Dandong, Kim met Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China’s Political Bureau and chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. The two visited a car factory and a Korean War memorial, where they paid tribute to Chinese troops killed in the conflict.
According to Xinhua, Kim thanked China for its long-standing support and said North Korea “stands ready to work with China to carry forward their historical friendship and expand practical cooperation, thereby delivering tangible benefits to the peoples of both countries”. Wang later accompanied Kim to the bridge to see him off, and Kim returned home after the brief visit.
The Guardian reported that the trip appeared to be timed ahead of the October 25 anniversary of China’s first major victory in the Korean War, which came days after Chinese troops crossed the Yalu into North Korea in October 1950. Japan’s Kyodo news agency said traffic controls had been imposed around the bridge and near a museum on China’s role in the war.
It was Kim’s sixth visit to China and his first since September 2025, when he attended a military parade in Beijing alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Xi visited Pyongyang in June, his first trip there in seven years. In early September, North Korea and Russia also opened their first road bridge across their short shared border.
The Associated Press described the visit as the latest step in Kim’s increasingly assertive foreign policy, aligning Pyongyang with Beijing and Moscow against the United States in what he portrays as a “new Cold War”. Relations with South Korea have meanwhile worsened, with Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, issuing about 10 statements criticising Seoul since late September.
Xi is due to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19, fuelling speculation about a possible meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump, although Reuters reported that US and South Korean officials see little chance of such a meeting this year.
Source: BRICS News on X, Yonhap, Xinhua, The Guardian, Associated Press and Reuters.
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