When Kim Jong Un arrived by armoured train in Beijing for a military parade in September, the pageantry signalled a thaw in one of the world’s most important relationships after several years of frosty ties.

Behind the spectacle of tanks and fighter jets, North Korea’s leader brought a senior economic team to talk trade and investment. Five weeks later, Chinese Premier Li Qiang reciprocated in Pyongyang, and China’s ambassador declared both countries were “writing a new chapter”.

For China, the mission is clear: reassert its traditional influence over a neighbour that has drawn closer to Russia since its Russian invasion of Ukraine. North Korea has supplied troops and weapons to Moscow in exchange for fuel and food to shore up an economy hobbled by UN sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a military parade to commemorate the Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang, North Korea, February 25, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a military parade to commemorate the Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang, North Korea, February 25, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS

The North Korean leader’s pivot to Moscow in recent years has allowed him to diversify his economic and diplomatic partners amid continued sanctions pressure. Kim has sent troops and weapons to Russia, aiding President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, in exchange for food and fuel.

Read: North Korea, China to resume passenger train service after six-year gap

A Reuters examination reveals how Beijing is deepening engagement with North Korea as Trump prepares to visit China and expresses interest in reviving talks with Kim for the first time since 2019. Satellite imagery shows China and North Korea installing new infrastructure along the border — including roadworks and port facilities, some not previously reported — and forging closer economic links that boost Beijing’s sway over any US overtures to Pyongyang.

To document the shift, Reuters reviewed trade data, travelled along parts of the 1,350-kilometre border and interviewed some three dozen people, including North Korean waitresses, Chinese business owners with factories in North Korea, Western tour operators, and a Chinese government official. Most spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

The rapprochement is cautious. North Korea shut its borders in 2020 in response to COVID-19 and remains largely closed to tourism, even as passenger-train services to the country from China resume this week. And Kim’s pivot to Moscow in recent years has diversified his political and economic partners amid continued sanctions pressure.

The New Yalu River Bridge, which links China and North Korea, remains unopened more than a decade after it was built. Fresh road markings were painted onto the bridge last May. REUTERS

Still, his intensifying cooperation with China positions North Korea for a wider reopening that some analysts say would enable Beijing to reinforce its smaller neighbour’s economic dependence and signal to Trump that his top strategic rival holds the key to shaping Kim’s actions.

China’s exports to North Korea reached a six-year high of $2.3 billion last year, a 25% annual increase. In November, China dropped its longstanding call for North Korea’s denuclearisation from an official arms-control white paper.

In a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 9, Kim said cooperation between the two countries “will become even closer in the future as we advance the common cause of socialism,” North Korean state media reported.

“Discussions across all areas — politics, economy, security and military — have kicked off, laying ground for relations to take a leap,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor who studies North Korea at Kyungnam University in South Korea.

Asked about China’s courting of North Korea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters that Russia welcomes greater cooperation in the region, which contributes to stability and security.

Beijing’s foreign ministry said China and North Korea have been “actively advancing border cooperation” to foster exchanges, without addressing Pyongyang’s ties with Moscow.

Bridging the divide

In the frontier city of Dandong, China has shown readiness for a surge in cross-border traffic. Road markings reading “Truck Entry Lane” and “Passenger Vehicle Entry Lane” were painted on the Chinese side of the unopened New Yalu River Bridge, which spans the border with North Korea.

Satellite imagery also shows construction at other Chinese border stations, including new roadworks and facilities at Quanhe Port, as well as new pavement and buildings at Nanping and Sanhe.

North Korea has also been building what analysts say is a customs and immigration facility, along with warehouses and cargo-transfer buildings on its side of the bridge.

Read More: Internet memes portray Kim Jong Un as ‘spectator’ of global tensions

After a 15-year delay, North Korea spent much of last year working on the project before construction stalled in November. Reuters could not determine why work paused.

China announced this week that passenger-train services between Beijing, Dandong and Pyongyang would resume for the first time in six years. Tickets are limited to travellers with a North Korean business visa.

While tourism has not officially resumed — Pyongyang cancelled an international marathon scheduled for April — the revival of rail links signals the eventual return of tourists, analysts say.

Chinese travellers accounted for the bulk of visitors to North Korea before the border closure.

Wigs, fake beards — and tungsten

The pickup in activity shows China is preparing to expand trade, analysts say.

“North Korea has a lot of raw material and also lots of people who could be put to work at a very, very low wage rate,” said Joseph Bermudez Jr., an analyst who studies the country.

While UN sanctions restrict traditional exports like coal, Beijing has pivoted to importing labour-intensive products that help prop up the Kim dynasty. Hair products — wigs, eyelashes and false beards — now account for nearly half of China’s imports from North Korea, rising 327-fold over the past decade.

The North Korean leader’s pivot to Moscow in recent years has allowed him to diversify his economic and diplomatic partners amid continued sanctions pressure. Kim has sent troops and weapons to Russia, aiding President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, in exchange for food and fuel. KCNA via REUTERS

China is also the main buyer of strategic metals from North Korea. Shipments of molybdenum and tungsten ores — essential for rockets and missile components — reached records in 2025.

Political momentum is also building. North Korea in October endorsed Beijing’s position on Taiwan, shortly before China’s arms white paper dropped calls for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

‘The second Shanghai’

Despite the renewed engagement, transformation remains elusive in Dandong, where hopes of booming trade with North Korea have fuelled boom-and-bust cycles for years.

No traffic crosses the New Yalu River Bridge, completed by China in 2014. On the Chinese side, residents peer through binoculars for signs of progress.

“We once joked that Dandong New Zone would be the second Shanghai,” said Fu, a waiter at a cafe by the unused bridge. “If the other side really opened up, it would be.”

Instead, empty storefronts line the streets. Property prices have slumped to around 3,000 yuan per square metre, down sharply from prices seen during Trump’s first term.

Traders say logistics remain restricted. Before the pandemic, trucks could travel freely inside North Korea to deliver or pick up goods. Now they must stop at the customs point.

North Korea’s caution about reopening partly stems from frustration that China has not done more to ease compliance with UN sanctions, analysts say.

Still, some officials remain optimistic.

“The worst time has passed,” said a Chinese government official monitoring border trade. “It can only get better and better.”