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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Raphael Rashid and Luke Harding

Russia and North Korea finalising first road crossing amid concerns it serves as Ukraine war supply route

Satellite imagery from 22 April 2026 shows a newly built bridge that forms the first ever road crossing between North Korea and Russia. Above it is the Friendship bridge, the only rail crossing between the two countries.
Satellite imagery from April 2026 shows a newly built bridge that forms the first ever road crossing between North Korea and Russia. Above it is the Friendship bridge, the only rail crossing between the two countries. Photograph: Truth Hounds / Planet Labs PBC

Russia and North Korea are close to completing a bridge that will form the first road link ever built between them, amid concerns the two increasingly close allies are creating infrastructure to boost military cooperation in the Ukraine war.

The bridge spans the Tumen River, between Khasan in Russia’s far east and Tumangang in North Korea, a remote, thinly populated stretch of borderland where the river marks the final few miles of the frontier before it reaches the coast.

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