China and North Korea reopen rail link after 2-year coronavirus closure

Line between Dandong in China and Sinuiju in North Korea back in business
Pyongyang suspended operations in January, 2020, and imposed some of the world’s strictest containment measures

North Korea

Liu Zhen

Published: 11:30pm, 17 Jan 2022

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North Korea has resumed railway cargo transport with China after a two-year halt in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed on Monday.

Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that “following friendly consultations between both sides” the railway between Dandong in China and Sinuiju in North Korea reopened.

“The two sides will work to facilitate normal trade between China and North Korea on the basis of guaranteeing epidemic prevention and safety,” Zhao said, when asked about a report that a train from North Korea arrived in Dandong on the weekend.

Both countries tried to reopen the border in November but abandoned those efforts when a new Covid-19 case was detected in Dandong.

The Dandong-Sinuiju railway across the Yalu River is the main trading route connecting China with North Korea, which is struggling with food and medicine shortages and has been hit by United Nations sanctions.

China is North Korea’s main supplier, accounting for over 90 per cent of the isolated country’s international trade, but the lifeline had been closed since January 2020, when Covid-19 began to spread across China.

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Imposing some of the world’s strictest control measures, Pyongyang shut all its borders, rejected all foreign visitors and stopped all international flights. Domestic travel has also been tightly restricted over the past two years.

There have been no official reports of coronavirus cases in North Korea and the country has refused offers of Covid-19 vaccines from other countries and the United Nations-backed vaccine distribution initiative.

While the railway was closed, freight was transported via the much slower maritime route between the port of Nampo in North Korea and Qingdao and Yantai in China.

The Financial Times reported in November that satellite photos showed North Korea was building several decontamination centers for containers near the border, a sign that Pyongyang was seeking to reopen for imports.

There had been discussions about resuming the land link, but recurring Covid-19 waves in China disrupted the progress.

Also on Monday Zhao called for dialogue and consultation when asked to comment on North Korea’s test firing of two short-range ballistic missiles earlier in the day.