A train carrying goods from China appears to have entered North Korea’s large-scale import disinfection zone near the border on Monday for the first time, NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery reveals.

The train reportedly crossed the bridge connecting China’s Dandong to North Korea’s Sinuiju on Monday morning, after a Chinese locomotive carried empty DPRK train cars to Dandong the previous day to be loaded with supplies. It was the first train to bring goods across the border since Aug. 2020 and comes as Pyongyang has halted most trade to keep out COVID-19.

The locomotive reportedly returned to China towing a second set of empty train cars later on Monday morning, and South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that this train returned to North Korea and a third set of empty cars entered China on Tuesday morning – a frequency of around 24-hours so far.

Planet Labs satellite imagery shows a train around 985 feet long (300 meters) at the entrance to the Uiju airport disinfection complex on Monday at 10:39 a.m. local time. An informed source previously told NK News that the first shipment aimed to test the disinfection facilities for rail freight.

Further imagery is required to determine if the train cars fully entered the complex and were unloaded. However, the image appears to confirm that the train cars are allowed to skip quarantine and travel directly to the complex along an 8.7-mile (14 kilometer) stretch of track past North Korean homes and streets, meaning authorities feel comfortable that the train won’t spread COVID-19 to nearby populations.

State media has warned that the virus can be carried into the country on snow and dust, and has not officially allowed anyone into the country since March 2020. Ships carrying imports have also been required to quarantine for weeks outside ports before entering out of apparent fear of surface contamination.

It also suggests incoming train cars can return along the tracks back to China after being unloaded, without needing to undergo lengthy quarantine, reducing the number of cars needed for the operation.

New checkpoints appeared to be installed along this stretch of track between Aug. and Oct. 2021, according to Planet Skysat imagery, but it does not appear to be otherwise covered or protected.

NK Pro was first to report details of the Uiju military-civilian airport being decommissioned and turned into disinfection facilities starting in late Feb. 2021. Construction appeared to be on and off throughout last year, but cranes needed to unload trains were finally installed between late October and early November.

Despite there reportedly being two completed shipments to North Korea and a third being prepared in China on Tuesday, the scope of the current operation is not yet known.

• Read More: The new normal? Experts see little hope for full restart of North Korean trade

If it turns out to be a temporary opening of overland trade, the shipments are not expected to offer substantial relief for North Koreans suffering from food and material shortages due to the government’s strict anti-COVID-19 policies. 

The length of the disinfection and likely quarantine process that imported goods will undergo at the Uiju disinfection complex is also unknown. If the offloaded goods are stored inside the 10 large warehouses in the complex, it will be difficult to determine the period of quarantine for any given set of items.

However, the complex appears to be set to handle a large capacity of goods, meaning that goods could be shipped out to the rest of the country daily or multiple times per week if incoming shipments continue on a frequent basis, after the initial quarantine period for Monday’s shipment ends. 

Edited by Arius Derr. Updated on Jan. 18 at 2:08 p.m. to include details from a Yonhap report Tuesday afternoon about a second shipment to North Korea being completed.