China appears to be moving forward with the construction of a land port on its side of the New Yalu River Bridge, according to recent bidding announcements, a development that aligns with reports that cross-border land trade may resume soon.

On Monday, Xintai Engineering Cost Consulting Co. Ltd. (丹东鑫泰工程造价咨询有限责任公司) published a bid for “competitive consultations on the supervision of the Dandong Port Construction Project,” referring to the New Yalu River Bridge Port Commercial and Logistics Zone (新鸭绿江大桥口岸商贸物流区), a key customs facility on the Chinese side of the bridge.

The New Yalu River connects the Chinese city of Dandong to the North Korean city of Sinuiju, a major trade route between the two countries. Despite being finished in 2013, no vehicles have been spotted crossing in either direction owing to delays on North Korea’s end.

The land port mentioned in the bidding announcement sits on the north side of the on-ramp to the New Yalu River Bridge from Dandong. Once completed, the land port would facilitate customs procedures for goods moving to and from North Korea.

Xintai Engineering did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NK News.

Another Chinese-language announcement for the project shows Xintai Engineering has budgeted $54,702 (350,000 Chinese yuan) for supervision of the construction project, although the final price is negotiable. The listing says “qualified suppliers or other organizations” have until Nov. 12 this year to submit their bid.

The announcements give legs to recent reports suggesting cross-border trade will resume in the near future — a development that would likely come as a relief for North Koreans in border regions paying exorbitant prices for basic foodstuffs such as sugar and cooking oil.

“North Korea has undergone almost two years of privation,” Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy studies, told NK News. “So it makes sense for North Korea to want to resume [cross-border] trade with China — there’s no surprise there.”

But Go was less certain the completion of the bridge and port would lead to an immediate surge in cross-border trade.

“I doubt that the North Koreans are ready to return to the level of trade they enjoyed with China before the pandemic,” Go said, explaining that Pyongyang was likely running low on foreign currency reserves — a resource critical for conducting trade with the outside world.

UP AND RUNNING?

Cross-border trade ground to a halt after Pyongyang imposed a series of extreme border restrictions intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 early last year.

While DPRK-China trade has inched up over the past few months, likely through North Korea’s primary seaport at Nampho, rail and vehicle freight trade remains at a standstill.

The New Yalu River Bridge Port Commercial and Logistics Zone on the Chinese side of the Yalu River (at left) saw no visible changes between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, 2021, though bidding announcements show construction is moving forward | © 2021 Planet Labs Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission

Last week, however, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Pyongyang is looking to restart freight operations from Dandong because Nampho is currently over capacity. At the same time, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) published a bulletin claiming the organization had confirmed “detailed information” about the imminent resumption of freight operations from Dandong. 

Trade between North Korea and China was decimated in late 2019 when COVID-19 spilled out of Wuhan and rattled the world economy. Between Dec. 2019 and Feb. 2020, China’s exports to North Korea fell from $256.7 million to just $10.3 million.

Construction of the New Yalu River Bridge began in 2011 and concluded in 2013, but its opening was suspended indefinitely in 2014. As late as 2019, the North Korean side of the bridge terminated abruptly in an undeveloped plot of land, making the abandoned project a punching bag for Chinese netizens.

But it’s not clear what shape or form renewed land-based trade with China would look like, or if the Yalu “bridge to nowhere” is anywhere close to opening. Go of Asan cautioned that cross-border construction projects have not always panned out, citing the bridge itself as an example of a “white elephant” project that cost China upwards of $350 million.

“Even if the Chinese build and finalize the construction of this new facility — which will obviously increase the capacity to receive and send goods to and from China — I’m not so sure whether that facility is actually going to be employed fully,” Go said.

Seohyun Pak contributed to this report. Edited by Arius Derr.