BEIJING: Passenger train services between China and North Korea resumed on Thursday following a six-year hiatus, state media said, after the route was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.

China is North Korea’s largest trading partner and a vital source of diplomatic, economic and political support for the isolated nuclear state. Train journeys between the East Asian neighbours were halted in 2020 under strict border closures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

State news agency Xinhua said the first train left Dandong, a Chinese city bordering North Korea, bound for Pyongyang on Thursday morning. It quoted an unidentified China Railways executive as saying that the train service would “serve as both a vital window for cross-border travellers and a dynamic link strengthening the friendship between these two nations”.

China Railway said in a separate statement regular train services would also resume between Beijing and the North Korean capital on Thursday evening. The resumption of the train link symbolised a return to a stronger bilateral relationship, said Lim Tai Wei, a professor and East Asia expert at Japan’s Soka University.

It signalled greater access to “the largest trading nation on Earth” for North Korea, Lim said, while it was also important for China’s “periphery diplomacy”. Beijing has been a crucial lifeline for North Korea’s moribund economy.

China has fully reopened its borders since the pandemic, but North Korea has proceeded more slowly. Direct flights and train services with Russia resumed last year.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2026