New North Korea-China bridge finally opens. But will it help Pyongyang evade sanctions?

By Gage Goulding, Yoonjung Seo, CNN

Seoul (CNN) — Ultra-isolated North Korea has a new bridge to the outside world.

It’s a four-lane highway leading to close ally and main trade partner China, and its opening on Thursday marks the latest rapprochement with Beijing. Experts worry it may also make it easier for Pyongyang to evade sanctions over its illegal nuclear program.

The nearly two-mile New Yalu River Bridge links the Chinese border city of Dandong with North Korea’s Sinuiju. Construction was completed in 2014, but the bridge remained unused for years because connecting roads and border facilities on the North Korean side were unfinished.

Satellite imagery from earlier this month showed vehicles on the bridge connecting Dandong and Sinuiju, which are believed to account for about 70% of bilateral trade, and on Thursday an opening ceremony saw trucks decked out with national flags making the journey over the river.

The older Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, also located in Dandong and built in 1937, has traditionally served as the main crossing between the two countries. But with just one lane, it can accommodate traffic in only one direction at a time.

The long-delayed opening follows a period of improving relations between Beijing and Pyongyang, including the reopening of a railway connection in March and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Pyongyang in June for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

That summit hinted at a restoration of ties between the two Communist states after they grew more distant in recent years as North Korea grew closer to Russia, analysts say.

The bridge offers an opportunity for China and North Korea to demonstrate the restoration of their relationship and their strategic alignment to the international community, Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in South Korea told CNN.

China still accounts for about 95% of North Korea’s total official trade, and the South Korean government has reported 17 rail and vehicle links connecting China and North Korea, according to the AP.

Last month, North Korea inaugurated the first road bridge linking it to Russia.

Ahead of the opening, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said: the bridge “will further promote economic and trade exchanges and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, and enhance the well-being of their peoples.”

Some analysts worry that it will also help the world’s most-sanctioned country evade bans on exports of its raw materials and other goods.

Kyungnam University’s Lim said North Korea could use the crossing as a government-controlled gateway to circumvent UN sanctions.

And, to what China is willing to go along with that, is partly contingent on relations with the US, said Yang Mu-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul,

“As relations between Washington and Beijing have become strained, China tended to take a more passive approach to enforcing sanctions,” Yang said.

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CNN’s Joyce Jiang contributed to this report.