China, North Korea reopen passenger train service after 6 years

China-Korea Train operations, halted since global pandemic outbreak covid-19,resumed after long gap of six years.

China is North Korea’s largest trading partner and a vital source of diplomatic, economic and political support for the isolated nuclear state.

China’s state news agency Xinhua said a train that departed from Dandong, a city in the northeast bordering North Korea, arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday evening.

Several people at the station gathered around the departures board to take photos of the “Beijing to Pyongyang” listing.

Train routes:

Trains will run in both directions between Beijing and Pyongyang every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, China Railway said.

The Dandong-Pyongyang service would operate daily, it said.

Travel agents for an official ticketing booth in Beijing told AFP on Tuesday that anyone with a valid visa can now buy train tickets to the North.

That includes Chinese people working and studying in North Korea, as well as North Koreans working, studying and visiting family abroad.

Entry and exit procedures would be completed at the Dandong border crossing and at Sinuiju in North Korea, China Railway said.

Tickets are currently available for offline purchase in several Chinese cities, it added.

The resumption of the train link symbolized a return to a stronger bilateral relationship, said Lim Tai Wei, a professor and East Asia expert at Japan’s Soka University.

It signaled greater access to “the largest trading nation on Earth” for North Korea, Lim told AFP, while it was also important for China’s “periphery diplomacy."

Train journeys between the East Asian neighbors were halted in 2020 under strict border closures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.