On the North Korean side of the river,\u00a0a large warehouse was built earlier this year. Since then,\u00a0a large parking lot has been\u00a0added\u00a0and new\u00a0roads\u00a0to and from the bridge\u00a0have been built\u00a0and paved. A new\u00a0frontier\u00a0post, which was under construction in\u00a0March, appears to be complete,\u00a0likely serving\u00a0as\u00a0a\u00a0customs\u00a0and immigration\u00a0checkpoint for traffic entering the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The warehouse,\u00a0as\u00a0at other crossing points, is likely\u00a0a\u00a0temporary holding\u00a0point\u00a0for goods being imported and exported. Typically,\u00a0at\u00a0North Korea\u2019s\u00a0border crossings with China, trucks transport goods to\u00a0a\u00a0warehouse\u00a0just inside the\u00a0country before\u00a0immediately\u00a0returning. Once the\u00a0vehicle has left North Korea, local trucks come in\u00a0to\u00a0pick up the goods\u00a0and transport them\u00a0to destinations\u00a0inside the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n This method, while inefficient, limits contact between North Korean and Chinese\u00a0truck drivers and\u00a0prevents\u00a0foreign trucks\u00a0from driving\u00a0deep into either country.\u00a0This helps to\u00a0ensure North Koreans\u00a0are\u00a0minimally\u00a0exposed to foreign culture\u00a0and\u00a0prevents\u00a0Chinese drivers from seeing too much of North Korea\u2019s rural realities.\u00a0<\/p>\n The same arrangement will\u00a0apparently be\u00a0used at the new Russian bridge, given the similar border area configurations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n On the Russian side\u00a0of the bridge, the customs complex appears\u00a0it will be\u00a0at\u00a0least three times\u00a0larger than that on the\u00a0North Korean\u00a0side, but\u00a0is\u00a0far less advanced in its construction\u00a0progress. Since March, a few buildings appear nearly completed, with work on the largest building\u00a0ongoing. Building materials, cranes,\u00a0and vehicles are\u00a0observed\u00a0throughout the site, suggesting\u00a0a high level\u00a0of activity is underway. Little-to-no progress has been made on the reciprocal frontier post or on improving the connecting roads.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0bridge\u00a0is the first road connection\u00a0between\u00a0Russia\u00a0and North Korea\u00a0and sits\u00a0about\u00a0500 meters\u00a0south of an existing railway bridge that is the only\u00a0physical link\u00a0between the two countries. Trade between Russia and North Korea has increased since North Korea began supplying\u00a0weapons and soldiers to aid Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.\u00a0Further economic and trade activity is expected to grow as the two countries\u00a0proceed\u00a0to build cooperation under their comprehensive strategic partnership treaty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the new road bridge between Russia and North Korea targeted a mid-June opening, the incomplete Russian customs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16418,25242,38260,171,3140,3141,38261],"class_list":["post-69935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-customs","tag-dprk-russia","tag-korea-russia-friendship-bridge","tag-korean","tag-martyn-williams","tag-satellite-imagery","tag-tumangang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69935","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=69935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Fig2-Tumangang-Upd-25-0630_26-0625-Planet-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Figure 1. Warehouse and frontier post on the North Korean side of the border appears to be complete from the exterior. Image \u00a9 2026 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Fig1-Tumangang-Upd-25-0630_26-0625-Planet-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Figure 2. Overview of road bridge North Korea-Russia Tumangang crossing area on imagery from June 25, 2026. Image \u00a9 2026 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Fig3-Tumangang-Upd-25-0630_26-0625-Planet-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Figure 3. On the Russian side of the border, the large probable customs area remains under construction. Image \u00a9 2026 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n