China and North Korea Open Border for Each Other
As immediately after the opening ceremony, 120 tourists crossed the border, Chinese tourism in North Korea has picked up as relations between the countries have improved in recent years.
The enmity with the US has bought China and North Korea closer. As both the nations are supporting each other by opening the border to help each other with trade, even as talks between the US and North Korea is on hold over their disagreements on the nuclear issue.
The highway border crossing between North Korea and China is opened from China’s northeastern city of Ji’an recently. The city administration has declared on its website, “After three years of unremitting efforts, the China-North Korean Ji'an-Manpo Highway Port was officially opened”.
The border project is built at the cost of 280 million Yuan ($42 million) and this will now allow an estimated 500,000 tons of goods and 200,000 people to cross through the new port on the Chinese side each year. This will also promote tourism on either side.
As immediately after the opening ceremony, 120 tourists crossed the border, Chinese tourism in North Korea has picked up as relations between the countries have improved in recent years. Now with this new opening, there will be a big flow of tourists.
The border crossing also has a nuclear radiation detection gate. China has long been worried about the effects of nuclear activities, which North Korea has been pursuing.
The main route for the North Korean trade with China has traditionally been through China’s border city of Dandong in the south. In the year 2012, city planners started work on a Dandong New Zone with a massive project to open a bridge connecting the city with the North Korean city of Sinuiju on the other side.
Authorities expected billions of dollars in investment to fund the jointly run free trade zones on both sides of the border, but were later abandoned. Now with this new association, the work on this project may also resume.
UN imposed sanctions on North Korea in the year 2016 and again in 2017, which has an adverse effect on the trade between the two cold war era allies. China has a good trade relationship with North Korea. Though there are no specific details of North Korea’s trade engagement with China.
In February, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s meeting with the US President Donald Trump has failed during their summit in Hanoi as both the leaders disagreed over North Korea’s continued pursuance of Nuclear establishments. Now we can say, Kim has found a Chinese way to deal with the US.
