For years, Khasan was little more than a very remote place on the edge of Russia. Less than 500 people live in the village in the country’s far east, more than 5,600 miles (9,012 kilometers) from Moscow. But it’s here that Russia shares a mere 10.5-mile border with North Korea — and Khasan is the only Russian settlement along that short stretch. Since 1959, the so-called Korean-Russian Friendship Railway Bridge has crossed the Tumen River here, serving as the only land connection between the two countries.
But in recent years, Russia and North Korea have been building a parallel road bridge just a few hundred yards away. The bridge is now nearing completion ahead of schedule, raising concerns in Kyiv that Russia could use it to secretly bring North Korean troops to the front lines in Ukraine.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow and Pyongyang haveimproved their ties. Both countries face Western sanctions and are diplomatically largely isolated. In June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a strategic partnership deal which in part focused on expanding military cooperation. That meant large-scale weapons shipments as well as the deployment of North Korean soldiers to support Russia’s war in Ukraine. At the same time, both governments agreed to build the new road bridge.
“The opening of the new bridge will boost bilateral trade, optimize logistics, strengthen cultural ties and transform border regions into dynamically growing economic centers,” Russian Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin said at the time.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has also pointed to the bridge’s economic significance, noting that “the pace at which construction of the road bridge is progressing, and the continued high level of rail traffic at previously dormant rail yards, are clear indicators of the importance and expansion of trade between the two countries during Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.”
A project for trade and tourism?
But according to British newspaper The Guardian, there are major doubts that civilian economic goals are the project’s true primary purpose.
Official data shows that trade between Russia and North Korea amounted to just $34 million in 2024. The bridge and its immediate infrastructure are thought to cost roughly $100 million. Satellite pictures of the site show warehouses, customs facilities, truck areas and a helicopter pad being built.
Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds, which has been monitoring the project, also doubts the bridge is for tourism. It is about 125 hours by car from Moscow and about four hours from Vladivostok.
“Tourism in North Korea is heavily restricted and, given the country’s isolation, cannot expand rapidly,” the organization said. If anyone from Russia would visit North Korea, they probably would go to the capital, Pyongyang, rather than the country’s remote northeastern region. But Pyongyang is hundreds of miles from the border, and “few people would want to make that journey by car,” the group argued.
Russia has spent years trying to get tourists to take heavily subsidized flights to visit Pyongyang. However, not many have taken up the opportunity. In 2025, fewer than 10,000 Russian citizens are thought to have traveled to North Korea.
Or a cover for military transport?
Truth Hounds instead concludes that the bridge’s real purpose is to deepen military cooperation, particularly by facilitating the transfer of North Korean troops and weapons for the war in Ukraine.
According to unofficial information reported by South Korean, Ukrainian and US sources in the middle of last year, North Korea sent between 14,000 and 15,000 personnel to support Russia’s war, with many reportedly deployed in Russia’s Kursk region while parts of it were under Ukrainian control. North Korea has also supplied Russia with weapons.
Road transport, Truth Hounds suggests, is harder to monitor by satellite than rail transport. Trains are confined to fixed tracks, and loading and unloading can take place only at designated rail hubs. Trucks however, can load and unload almost anywhere and satellite surveillance is virtually impossible.
Just days ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on X that Russia could deploy as many as 30,000 additional North Korean troops in the war against Ukraine.
Military know-how for North Korea
Zelenskyy also argued that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from the improved military partnership. The new bridge could enable Russia to secretly move resources into North Korea.
“Russia,” Zelenskyy wrote, “is helping North Korea learn how to wage modern war, improve its weapons and gain real combat experience in using them.”
Observers also believe that North Korea might be receiving some Russian nuclear technology in exchange for helping Moscow in its war efforts.
Taken together, Zelenskyy warned in his X post, these developments pose “a threat to everyone in Asia who lives within range of North Korean missiles.”
This article has been translated from German.
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