Satellite imagery has revealed that a major new bridge across the Tumen River between Russia and North Korea is nearing completion.
According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, this new bridge — called the Khasan-Tumangang Bridge — is around one kilometer long, connecting the North Korean city of Rason with the Russian town of Khasan. It will be able to hold up to 300 vehicles and serve approximately 2,850 people each day.
A senior researcher at Seoul-based Korea Institute for Security Strategy, Bruce Songhak Chung, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that both nations are “pushing hard” to finish the final stages of construction, just in time for a summer opening.
”The project is showing approximately 80 percent to 90 percent completion ahead of the official opening,” Chung said.
The bridge’s construction had been closely monitored through satellite images for months, tracking the progression on the bridge and customs buildings on both sides.
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By May 20, roofing on the North Korean customs building was complete, alongside extensive ground leveling and paving. Meanwhile, the Russian customs complex is seeing similarly rapid progress; crews are advancing concrete work, paving access roads, clearing the site, and constructing a small checkpoint building.
The bridge suggests closer ties between Pyongyang and Moscow as Russia continues its conflict with Ukraine.
“This bridge will offer a useful route to transfer military goods and munitions — both to North Korea and to Russia,” Dr. Edward Howell, expert on the Korean peninsula at the University of Oxford, said, according to the BBC.
The BBC also reported that the costs of construction could be around nine billion Russian roubles ($120 million).
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Opening soon
In June 2024, at a summit in Pyongyang, both governments agreed to build the new bridge. Two ceremonies were held in April 2025 and April 21 this year; the latter being a connection ceremony attended by delegations from the two countries.
In the connection ceremony, the Russian Embassy in North Korea also announced that the bridge would be finished on June 19.
Once completed, “trade, economic, and people-to-people ties” between the two countries could be expanded, experts believe. This comes as Russia faces further pressure from the international community for its war with Ukraine, which sees North Korean soldiers being deployed to aid Moscow.
“Road transport can move larger volumes of freight more quickly than rail and allow more people to travel, so bilateral trade is expected to grow once the bridge opens,” Joung Eunlee, director of the Korea Institute for National Unification — based in Seoul — told RFA.
Workers from North Korea could also be sent overseas through the bridge, Kang Dong Wan, professor of political science at Dong-A University in Busan, South Korea, told RFA.
Since 1959, the sole link between the two nations has been the Friendship Bridge — a narrow, rail-only structure originally intended as a temporary fixture until a permanent bridge could be built.
Experts have warned that the bridge could help lift the burden of sanctions on both countries.
Conversely, analysts believe that the faster completion of the bridge is also a sign of Pyongyang’s pivot towards Moscow over Beijing.
Though structurally finished in 2014, the New Yalu River Bridge between China and North Korea is still not opened due to stalled work on infrastructure despite heavy investments.
Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, once told RFA that Pyongyang had been “less than enthusiastic” about their bridge with China out of fear of Chinese interference.
Ri Jong-ho, a former senior North Korean official, told RFA that the bridge was blocked to prevent “Chinese-style reform” from disrupting North Korea’s existing power structures.
“The New Yalu River Bridge has become a barometer of North Korea-China relations. It could open within months depending on Kim Jong Un’s decision — or it could take another decade, or remain closed beyond the Kim Jong Un era,” Ri said.
