Our view The story of the Dandong bridge shows a simple thing: great powers have no eternal friends, only calculation. China needs North Korea as a buffer but does not need a conflict with the US over Pyongyang. Declarations of a “united front against America” are often louder than real coordination. Washington itself spent many years pushing Pyongyang toward Beijing and Moscow, promising talks and withdrawing them. But there is no data on a rupture between China and North Korea, and to speak of one would be invention. This is an editorial opinion, not an established fact. The mainstream assessment American media and some analysts see the rapprochement of Pyongyang, Beijing and Moscow as a united front against the United States. Others, including Asia Times commentators, note Beijing’s restrained reaction: it takes its own regional interests and relations with other powers into account. What happened China and North Korea show closeness, but Beijing stays cautious. What happened in Dandong, how it is assessed and what we think. On October 24 Kim Jong Un made an unannounced one-day trip to the Chinese city of Dandong and opened a new bridge across the Yalu River: the bridge was completed 12 years ago but never used. He was accompanied by Wang Huning, China’s fourth-ranking official, who conveyed greetings from Xi Jinping. Kim visited a memorial to Chinese soldiers of the Korean War. The trip fell around the anniversary of Chinese troops entering the Korean War in 1950. Beijing and Pyongyang are expanding economic ties: at a June summit in Pyongyang Xi announced wider cooperation in trade, agriculture, construction and technology. A former North Korean official suggested that the timing may have been influenced by pressure from Beijing, which paid for most of the bridge. Read also: the Party plenum and Xi Jinping. Sources CNN, 24.10.2026 The Japan Times, 25.10.2026 Radio Free Asia, 26.10.2026 CBS News / AP Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain (bridge across the Yalu between Dandong and Sinuiju, archive photo). Post navigation Iran: Qatar Seeks a Deal While the Threat of New Strikes Hangs Over Talks
