Kim Jong-un crosses into China via newly opened New Yalu River Bridge; analyst says Pyongyang is highlighting Beijing ties amid strained US-South Korea relations

Kim Yo-jong, director of the Korean Workers' Party General Affairs Department [Yonhap]
Kim Yo-jong, director of the Korean Workers' Party General Affairs Department [Yonhap]

As Kim Yo-jong, director of the Korean Workers' Party General Affairs Department, has been issuing a string of critical statements against South Korea since a demilitarized zone mine explosion last month, Kim Jong-un traveled to China to showcase the close ties between the two countries. The North Korean leader arrived in Dandong, Liaoning Province, via the newly opened New Yalu River Bridge, according to reports.

Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asan Policy Research Institute, said Saturday that North Korea views the current US-South Korea relationship as strained and is therefore emphasizing its friendship with China. "Given that it is displaying confidence in its diplomacy, there is a possibility it will also deliberately highlight its deepening ties with Russia in the near future," he added.

The New Yalu River Bridge is a four-lane, 3,026-meter span connecting Dandong — the main trade hub between China and North Korea — with Sinuiju in North Pyongan Province. Completed in 2014, its opening was repeatedly delayed due to the lack of connecting roads and customs facilities on the North Korean side before it officially opened Oct. 15.

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the bridge reflects China's intent to actively manage instability within its own bloc through cooperative relationships, much as the United States is strategically realigning by assigning greater responsibilities to allies in the Western Hemisphere. "It also has the character of building a front to counter the South Korea-US-Japan alliance," he said.

Troy Stangarone, a US expert on the Korean Peninsula economy, said Saturday at a North Korean economy forum at George Washington University that "this is clearly the best period since Kim Jong-un came to power, and perhaps the best period of his life." He cited the war in Ukraine, expanded cooperation with China, and increased revenue through cybercrime as factors behind that assessment.

Questions were also raised about whether North Korea's economy may have grown at a higher rate than the Bank of Korea estimates, buoyed in part by an influx of funds from Russia. The Bank of Korea put North Korea's economic growth rate last year at 3.5 percent. Stangarone said he believes the North Korean economy likely grew more than the Bank of Korea's figures suggest, adding that "even if the funds flowing in from Russia are only half of estimates, that still represents enormous revenue."

Meanwhile, Kim Yo-jong has recently directed a torrent of insults at the Lee Jae Myung government, using terms such as "idiot" and "pathetic."

In a recent "warning" addressed to South Korea, she said that while she had dealt with both the Moon Jae-in and Yoon Suk Yeol administrations, she had "never seen anything as foolish and pathetic as those riding the current administration's cart," adding that officials at Cheong Wa Dae and in the government were "all cast from the same mold — cookie-cutter idiots, every one of them."

South Korean government authorities are believed to suspect that Kim Jong-un has ordered an acceleration of border demarcation work and that a deadline has been set, causing North Korea to react with heightened sensitivity to South Korean military responses. North Korea has not responded to South Korea's Ministry of National Defense's proposal, made Friday, to hold inter-Korean military talks to address discrepancies along the MDL and concerns over accidental clashes in border areas.


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