North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un Visits Dandong, Highlights New Yalu River Bridge
The Chosun Ilbo · Kim Dong-ha ·
North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un Visits Dandong, Highlights New Yalu River Bridge Kims first trip to China in over a year coincides with bridges opening, signaling potential economic cooperation expansion; visit omitted meeting with Xi Jinping
North Korean media reported in detail on the 25th that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Dandong, Liaoning Province, in China on a day trip the previous day. News of Kim’s visit to China via the New Yalu River Bridge, which opened on the 15th, was also relayed through the Korean Central Broadcasting Station, a state-run radio accessible to North Korean residents, as well as the Korean Central News Agency, an external media outlet.
The Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim visited the Anti-US Aid-Korea Memorial Hall in Dandong around the 76th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers’ entry into the Korean War. Accompanying him were senior officials from the party and government, including Jo Yong-won, a secretary of the Workers’ Party Central Committee; Choe Son-hui, Foreign Minister; secretaries Ri Il-hwan and Kim Sung-nam; Kim Tok-hun, First Deputy Prime Minister; Kim Yo-jong, Chief of the Party’s Organization and Guidance Department; and Kim Jae-ryong, First Deputy Department Head, as well as Ri Yong-nam, North Korea’s ambassador to China.
On the Chinese side, Wang Huning, the fourth-highest-ranking official and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, greeted Kim. This visit marked Kim’s first trip to China in one year and one month since his September 2025 attendance at the 80th-anniversary commemoration of Japan’s surrender in Beijing, and his sixth since assuming power. It was the first time Kim returned from a visit to China without meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping.
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