This is a 17-kilometer strip that is almost invisible on the map of Russia. In the extreme southeast of the territory, where the Tumen River meanders, Vladimir Putin’s country touches North Korea. A small but strategic border, where an unprecedented event is being prepared: the inauguration of the first highway bridge between both countries.
A bridge will connect Russia and North Korea on their small 17-kilometer border
Satellite images from the CSIS think tank show the rapid progress of the project started six months ago and estimated at more than 100 million euros. A work that is not insignificant: it embodies the spectacular tightening of the alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang since the start of the war in Ukraine.
In the images, the 1.3 kilometer bridge rises over the Tumen River. North Korean side: stilts rise from the water, we can see a large construction zone, a 5 km² border post, a building that looks like a customs office and a large parking lot that will probably serve as a loading area for trucks. Russian side: a construction site stretching for approximately nine kilometers, with a road under construction and a heliport.
A railway bridge has linked Russia and North Korea since the Cold War
Just one hundred meters from the construction site, there is already another building that links the two countries: the railway bridge inaugurated in 1959, in the middle of the Cold War, then called “Friendship Bridge.” The Soviet Union then wanted a direct corridor to Pyongyang to anchor its presence in Northeast Asia: weapons, coal, steel and grain.
For a long time, this bridge remained discreet, almost forgotten. But since 2023 it has experienced a spectacular resurgence.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia, subject to Western sanctions, and North Korea, isolated, have intensified their cooperation. This railway corridor makes it possible to avoid Western pressures, but also to transport weapons and soldiers from Pyongyang to Moscow.
4,700 North Korean soldiers injured or killed in Ukraine
In this way, North Korea has become Russia’s main operational ally in its war in Ukraine.
Pyongyang has reportedly delivered more than 4 million projectiles to Russia, double Russia’s annual production. Result: more than half of the ammunition fired in Ukraine now comes from North Korea.
And the help is not only material. According to South Korean intelligence, 15,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to the Ukrainian front. Last April, he estimated losses at 4,700 men, including 600 dead, many of them surprised by drone warfare, for which they were unprepared. These North Korean troops would have been instrumental in the Russians’ capture of Kursk.
For the first time, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un acknowledged sending soldiers to Ukraine last April.
A monument honoring the “deeds” of North Korean soldiers will soon be erected in Pyongyong.
Source: BFM TV
