The bridge crosses the Yalu River on the border between China and North Korea. Photo from South China Morning Post



By Lee Jeong-ho





China and North Korea have finally opened a border bridge built between the two countries in 2016, in a potential boost to the North's economy as Beijing tries to balance its concerns about its neighbour against ongoing international pressure for it to denuclearise.



A border checkpoint and bridge connecting the Chinese city of Jian with North Korea's Manpo were open on Monday, following three years of delays since they were built.



Four buses crossed the border from North Korea in the morning and returned to the hermit kingdom about an hour later carrying about 120 people, who included tourists, according to South Korean media. It was not known whether the people travelled from North Korea or boarded the buses in China.



The bridge had remained closed on its completion in 2016, with Beijing taking a cautious approach at a time when it faced international scrutiny of whether it was fully implementing UN Security Council sanctions on the North.



US President Donald Trump suggested after his first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore last June that China "may be" doing something to sabotage his denuclearisation deal with Kim.



China vowed last July to enforce the sanctions after a UN committee accused it and South Korea of being reluctant to enforce a ban on coal exports from the North.



But there has been a change in the status of the Jian-Manpo border crossing ― built near to where Kim's father, the former leader Kim Jong-il, was reported to have crossed the border in 2010 in a rare trip outside his country.





In this Jan. 8, 2019, photo provided on Jan. 10, 2019, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, center left, review honor guard at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. AP-Yonhap