A new road bridge connecting the small North Korean town of Namyang and the adjacent Chinese town of Tumen has been paved and may be ready to open soon, recent photos from the area suggest.

Once open, the bridge will replace an old single-lane bridge that nonetheless continues to see heavy traffic in tourists and large covered trucks carrying cargo into the DPRK.

It is likely to result in increased traffic in goods exported to the DPRK or transhipped through North Korea’s east coast ice-free ports in the future. 

And with the