A £77m car bridge is being constructed next to the site of an existing railway bridge connecting North Korea and the far east of Russia. The 2.92-mile bridge, which is set to be completed by the end of 2026, will connect northern North Korea with eastern Russia, near the city of Vladivostok. The crossing will be constructed of the Tumen River, which divides Russia, North Korea, and China.
In February, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree granting the project to a tiny, inexperienced firm based in Sochi, called TonnelYuzhStroi, NK News reports.
Construction is yet to begin on the bridge, having only had the go-ahead after Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea in 2024. The crossing will be erected next to the “Friendship Bridge”, which has linked the two authoritarian states by rail since 1959.
“The construction of the bridge has not yet begun,” Alexander Matsegora, Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, told RIA. “The parties are carrying out preparatory work, finalising design documentation, forming construction crews and columns of equipment,” he said.
Matsegora also said that Pyongyang is positive about recent contact between Washington and Moscow over the war in Ukraine – a conflict North Korean soldiers have fought in.
The ambassador said that Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoygu informed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about the contact between the US and Russia during a visit to Pyongyang last Friday.
“Our Korean friends do not have even a shadow of concern that they can somehow influence the comprehensive strategic partnership between our countries, the relations of fraternal friendship between the Korean and Russian peoples, cemented by the bloodshed of their shared blood,” Matsegora added.
