{"id":110214,"date":"2026-08-05T18:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/110214\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T18:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:46:07","slug":"russian-construction-makes-progress-toward-bridge-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/110214\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Construction Makes\u00a0Progress Toward Bridge Opening\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Commercial\u00a0satellite imagery shows\u00a0increased activity on the Russian side of the new road bridge to North Korea\u00a0in\u00a0Tumangang.\u00a0Ahead of the expected bridge opening in June,\u00a0the\u00a0North Korean\u00a0customs area <a href=\"https:\/\/www.38north.org\/2026\/06\/opening-of-new-road-link-with-russia-unlikely-in-near-term\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">appeared<\/a>\u00a0complete, but\u00a0progress on the Russian\u00a0complex\u00a0lagged far behind. Since then, the pace of construction and activity around the site has\u00a0picked\u00a0up,\u00a0the\u00a0bridge\u2019s\u00a0projected opening date <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/2026\/07\/russia-seeks-to-open-new-car-bridge-to-north-korea-in-september-official\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">revised<\/a> to September.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Significant progress\u00a0has been made on the larger buildings\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0Russian\u00a0customs area.\u00a0On\u00a0imagery from\u00a0late\u00a0June,\u00a0the frame of one of the\u00a0main buildings was clearly visible,\u00a0but by early August,\u00a0imagery shows\u00a0the exterior\u00a0appears to\u00a0be\u00a0nearing\u00a0completion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Large\u00a0sections\u00a0of concrete have been laid\u00a0around the entrance to the customs area.\u00a0Road work\u00a0appears to be\u00a0underway in the\u00a0370-meter span\u00a0connecting the complex to the bridge.\u00a0Large\u00a0stores of\u00a0construction materials\u00a0are\u00a0still visible\u00a0throughout\u00a0the\u00a0site,\u00a0indicating\u00a0much\u00a0more work\u00a0remains,\u00a0which may\u00a0include\u00a0additional\u00a0buildings.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.38north.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Fig1-Tumangang-Upd-26-0805_26-0804-Planet-scaled.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-34293\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Fig1-Tumangang-Upd-26-0805_26-0804-Planet-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"  \/><\/a>Figure 1. Imagery from August 4, 2026 shows further efforts to complete the Russian customs yard as the revised road bridge opening date approaches. Image \u00a9 2026 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.38north.org\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"9beff3f2e9efe2fef2fcf3eff5f4e9eff3dbfcf6faf2f7b5f8f4f6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.38north.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Fig2-Tumangang-Upd-26-0805_26-0804-Planet-scaled.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-34292\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Fig2-Tumangang-Upd-26-0805_26-0804-Planet-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"  \/><\/a>Figure 2. Road work connecting the bridge to the Russian customs area progresses. Image \u00a9 2026 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.38north.org\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"deaab6b7acaaa7bbb7b9b6aab0b1acaab69eb9b3bfb7b2f0bdb1b3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commercial\u00a0satellite imagery shows\u00a0increased activity on the Russian side of the new road bridge to North Korea\u00a0in\u00a0Tumangang.\u00a0Ahead of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16418,31,3140,34,56606,3141,38261],"class_list":["post-110214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-customs","tag-korea","tag-martyn-williams","tag-north-korea","tag-planet","tag-satellite-imagery","tag-tumangang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}