The Tumen River crossing is expected to boost trade and provide year-round motor vehicle traffic between Russia and North Korea
Russia and North Korea have opened the first road bridge across the Tumen River, linking Russia’s Primorye region directly with the neighboring country, Primorye Governor Oleg Kozhemyako has announced.
The new crossing over the river dividing the countries is expected to boost mutual trade and provide year-round transport.
Construction of the new bridge began in April 2025 under an agreement signed by Moscow and Pyongyang in 2024. Until now, the neighboring countries’ only direct land transport connection had been the Friendship railway bridge across the Tumen River.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his North Korean counterpart Pak Thae Song launched traffic across the bridge by video link.
“The new route will ensure reliable and stable supplies of various products and will help expand trade and economic cooperation between our countries,” Kozhemyako wrote on Telegram on Monday.
The entire crossing, including access roads, stretches about 4.7 km, while the bridge itself is roughly 1 km long and carries two lanes of traffic. The Russian section measures 424 meters and the North Korean section 581 meters.
Leading the first Russian convoy across the bridge was a piece of Soviet history – a restored red ZAZ-968M Zaporozhets once owned by Soviet officer Yakov Novichenko, after whom the crossing is named. His grandson Nikolay Shcherbitsky drove the 1980 car, which he had restored himself.
During a mass rally in Pyongyang in 1946, Novichenko shielded Kim Il Sung from a grenade thrown toward the platform where the Korean leader was standing. He survived despite severe injuries and the loss of his right hand, and was later awarded North Korea’s highest labor title.
A new Khasan road checkpoint has also been built next to the bridge. It has ten traffic lanes and is designed to process up to 300 vehicles and 2,850 people per day once it operates at full capacity, according to the Russian Transport Ministry. Russian officials say the new road link should cut transport costs and increase bilateral trade.
