China is North Korea’s largest trading partner and a major source of diplomatic, economic and political support for the isolated nuclear nation.
Train travel between the East Asian neighbors was halted in 2020 under strict border closures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
China’s state news agency Xinhua said the train, which left Dandong on North Korea’s northeastern border, arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday evening.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency earlier reported sightings crossing the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge over the Yalu River.
China Railways said in a separate statement that regular train services will resume between Beijing and Pyongyang on Thursday evening.
AFP journalists on Thursday’s Pyongyang-bound K27 train from Beijing have reserved carriages only for passengers bound for North Korea.
Several people gathered around the departure board at the station to take photos of the “Beijing to Pyongyang” banner.
The overnight train is set to make a few stops, including the port city of Tianjin, and then head northeast to Dandong on the border.
A railway enthusiast at the station told AFP they were only taking the train one stop and would get off at Tianjin.
“It’s great that this line is reopening, because there are very few international train connections in China,” he said before undergoing an ID check by plainclothes police officers.
Change trains
Wagons holding passengers bound for Beijing to Pyongyang are attached to another train at Dandong, which takes them across the border to the nearby North Korean city of Sinuiju, said Rowan Beard of Young Pioneer Tours, which specializes in North Korea travel.
Those wagons and North Korean domestic carriages will then be attached to a new train bound for Pyongyang, he said.
China Railways said trains will run in both directions between Beijing and Pyongyang every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
The Dandong-Pyongyang service will operate daily, it said.
Travel agents at an official ticketing booth in Beijing told AFP on Tuesday that anyone with a valid visa can now buy train tickets to the north.
This includes Chinese people working and studying in North Korea, as well as North Koreans working, studying and visiting family abroad.
China Railways said entry and exit procedures will be completed at the Dandong border crossing and North Korea’s Sinuiju.
It added that tickets are currently available for offline purchase in several Chinese cities.
‘Renormalization’
Lim Tai Wei, a professor at Japan’s Soka University and an East Asia expert, said the resumption of rail links signaled a return to a stronger bilateral relationship.
Lim told AFP that this would mean greater access for North Korea to “the largest trading nation on earth”, but it would also be important for China’s “periphery diplomacy”.
“Maintaining regular passenger train services is of great importance to facilitate personnel exchanges between the two countries,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
Beijing is a critical lifeline for North Korea’s unstable 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.
The resumption marks a “re-normalization” of contact between China and North Korea, which does not necessarily mean increased support from Beijing, said Chong Jae Ian, associate professor at the National University of Singapore.
“The earlier limitation in connectivity appears to be due to concerns about Pyongyang’s wider connectivity, which has been reduced,” Chong told AFP.
