Russia and North Korea signed a deal to forge a strategic partnership last month; besides pledging to provide one another with military assistance, the two sides also plan to build a new bridge across their shared border, an agreement that may have implications for China and its desire to access the Sea of Japan.
The Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was signed on June 19 when Russian President Vladimir Putin met North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un in the latter's capital Pyongyang, further deepening a longstanding relationship since the Cold War.
The proposed new road bridge will be constructed over the Tumen River, which serves as a natural boundary between the two neighbors. Further upstream, however, is their triple border area with China.
North Korea has been China's only formal treaty ally thanks to a mutual aid pact signed in 1961.
The Korea–Russia Friendship Bridge remains the sole crossing point along their 10-mile land border. The rail bridge built over the Tumen River opened 65 years ago, and a new cross-border passage would expand traffic and thus tourism and trade, benefiting both countries as they attempt to balance the effects of Western economic sanctions.
Choi Eun Ju, a research fellow at South Korea's Sejong Institute, told Radio Free Asia's Korean service that the new bridge connecting the North's northeast to Russia's Far East would be completed as planned, unlike the New Yalu River Bridge between the North and China, which is mostly complete but remains unopened.
Nonetheless, the expert noted that the lack of support infrastructure in Russia and North Korea was a disadvantage to the movement of goods and people via the new bridge.
Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, said any benefits from tourism and trade would likely only be felt in the long term, according to RFA.
The Russian Foreign Ministry and North Korea's embassy in Beijing did not respond to separate requests seeking comment before publication.
The new plan for the Tumen River bridge, which has yet to be named, comes after Russia and China announced in May their intentions to discuss the waterway's usage by Chinese ships in order to reach the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in both Koreas.
Beijing's formal access to the strategic marginal sea in the Western Pacific Ocean currently ends about 9 miles upstream at the tripoint.
Moscow and Beijing will engage in a constructive dialogue, along with Pyongyang, on navigation in the river, according to a joint statement that followed a summit between Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
At present, Chinese vessels require permission from both neighbors before sailing from the final stretch of the 324-mile long Tumen River into the Sea of Japan.
China also is contemplated widening the river to allow larger vessels to transit, according to financial magazine Nikkei Asia.
China aims to send coast guard vessels, which are usually larger than their counterparts in the region, directly to the Sea of Japan via Tumen River, posing a potential strategic headache for Japan, Kyushu University professor Chisako Masuo told the publication.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ryan Chan is a Newsweek reporter based in Hong Kong, where he previously had over a decade of experience at ... Read more
