MOSCOW, Sept 7 (Reuters): North Korea and Russia opened their first road bridge on Monday in a carefully choreographed display of friendship, a structure which spans the Tumen river and which both sides cast as an important milestone in their deepening strategic partnership.

The first flag-adorned trucks trundled across the 1 km (0.6 mile) long two-lane bridge as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and North Korea's Premier Pak Thae Song tuned in by video link to address workers and government officials from both countries.

Construction of the new bridge, which had been under discussion for years, began in April last year after the project was agreed during a visit by President Vladimir Putin to North Korea in 2024. There ⁠are already direct air and rail links between Moscow and Pyongyang, but until Monday there had not been a proper road link. Instead, since 1959 and by special arrangement, planks had been placed on the nearby rail bridge - for decades the sole border crossing point - in order to move vehicles across the border between the two countries.

"I am convinced that the expansion of cross-border transport infrastructure will provide a powerful impetus for the further development of trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation," said Mishustin, who said ties between Moscow and Pyongyang were "at an unprecedented high level" and called the opening of the bridge "a genuinely historic event."

The construction of the bridge was not merely an engineering project, he said, but "a new symbol of friendship".

Mishustin said up to 300 vehicles would be able to cross every day and that the bridge would be linked to Russia's federal road network and have easy access to the transport corridor which runs from the ⁠far eastern city of Vladivostok to St Petersburg. Trucks would begin to use the bridge immediately to transport cargo, the Russian government said. At the end of this year, the bridge would be fully operational and could be used for passenger traffic too.

The bridge was built near an existing "Friendship Bridge", a rail bridge which was commissioned in 1959 after the Korean war. Symbolically, the new bridge is named after Yakov Novichenko, a Red Army soldier who Pyongyang credits with protecting the life of North Korea's first leader Kim ⁠Il Sung in 1946 by intercepting a grenade thrown at him and others.

The bridge showed the allies had established key infrastructure to expand economic cooperation, including people-to-people exchanges, tourism and trade in goods, North Korea's state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.

Ties between the two countries have grown stronger since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, with ⁠Pyongyang sending thousands of troops to Russia's Kursk region to help repel a 2024 Ukrainian incursion there.

Mishustin made a reference to that in his speech on Monday, referring to "the Korean heroes who, only recently, fought shoulder to shoulder with our soldiers and defended Russian soil".

The bridge underscores how economic sanctions against North Korea ⁠are becoming meaningless, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at South Korea-based Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies.

"While North Korea is trying to maximise its own interests, Russia has secured a direct road route for the transport of military supplies, ammunition and manpower, including troops, for its prolonged war in Ukraine."

Photo from Reuters