Kim Jong Un in Dandong meets China's No. 4, returns home via new bridge
On a one-day visit to China, North Korea's leader invoked close ties with Beijing. He met Wang Huning, honored Chinese soldiers of the Korean War and toured a factory.
Archive image · Photo: Alexei Nikolsky, The Presidential Press and Information Office / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met China's fourth-ranking official, Wang Huning, during a surprise visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong. Wang conveyed greetings from President Xi Jinping and called the visit significant for the two countries' “traditional friendship.” According to ABC, Beijing and Pyongyang agreed to expand trade and exchanges. Kim attended a banquet hosted by Wang, toured a vehicle factory and paid his respects at a monument to Chinese soldiers of the Korean War (1950–1953). On Sunday, China marked the 76th anniversary of its entry into the war.
According to state news agency KCNA, Kim pledged to “always” remember the history of help from the Chinese people. Of the new 3-kilometer bridge over the Yalu border river, he expressed hope that it would fulfill its task of connecting the two countries. Kim returned to North Korea across the bridge at the end of the one-day visit. He was accompanied by, among others, Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and his sister Kim Yo Jong.
It was Kim's first known trip to China since September 2025. The bridge is intended to carry heavy equipment, raw materials and energy products; an expert quoted by ABC said it resolved a trade bottleneck. According to a Reuters report, U.S. officials say the chances of a meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump this year are fading; Trump is expected in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in November for the APEC summit.