MOSCOW: Russia and North Korea on Wednesday (Apr 30) began construction of a road bridge between the two countries that will span the Tumen river, part of an effort to strengthen their strategic partnership, Russia’s prime minister said.
The bridge is being built near the existing “Friendship Bridge”, a rail bridge which was commissioned in 1959 after the Korean war.
At a ceremony dedicated to the start of the new bridge’s construction, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said it was a significant event in Russian-North Korean relations, the TASS state news agency reported.
“The significance goes far beyond just an engineering task,” Mishustin was quoted as saying. “It symbolises our common desire to strengthen friendly, good-neighbourly relations and increase inter-regional cooperation.”