China cuts bridge to N. Korea trade
Shutdown for repairs could be message
China is closing the bridge that is its primary trade route to North Korea for repairs, a likely sign Beijing is putting pressure on the Pyongyang regime over its nuclear program and missile tests.
“I am sure that this is one not so subtle way to show its displeasure with North Korea,” said Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
The road-and-rail Friendship Bridge spans the Yalu River and supplies the pariah state with 70 to 80 percent of its goods, Lee said. Its planned closure for a week in midDecember comes after Air China suspended flights between the two countries last week.
However, Lee said the 80-yearold bridge, about “a quarter the length of the Tobin Bridge,” was built when Japan controlled the area and does need repairs from time to time.
“I’m even more sure that in the end it doesn’t mean anything and it doesn’t signal a change in policy,” Lee said. “This isn’t the first time it’s been closed for repairs. It was closed in July 2016.”
Last week, Air China suspended flights to North Korea citing a lack of demand. Coupled with the bridge closure, the flight restrictions will create some economic pressure on the north, Lee said, but he added, “I don’t think (North Korean dictator) Kim Jong Un is trembling in fear.”
China was urged to step up economic pressure against Kim over his nuclear program and longrange missile tests during President Trump’s 12-day trip to Asia earlier this month. On Nov. 16, China sent an envoy to North Korea, heralded by a Trump tweet: “We’ll see what happens.” No word has emerged of those talks.
Last summer North Korea fired multiple long-range missile tests but amid international outcry and pressure from the U.S. and the U.N., there have been no tests in more than two months.
Harry J. Kazianis of the Center for the National Interest said China “loves to remind North Korea who is boss.”
“The closing of Friendship Bridge — closing temporarily this key land route, from what some reports are saying are, because of ‘poor road conditions’ — could just be an excuse and a very well-timed signal to Pyongyang that their missile and nuclear tests from the summer went too far and created too much tension in Northeast Asia,” Kazianis said. “This could also be punishment for a lack of willingness to signal any sort of willingness to talk or compromise after a top Chinese official recently traveled to North Korea and came home, what seemed, empty-handed.”
“We run the risk of an escalatory spiral where no side will give an inch, increasing the chances of war with potentially millions dead every time someone pushes and the other side pushes back,” Kazianis said. “And with the (Winter) Olympics coming in February in South Korea, I fear 2018 could be the year tensions on the Korean peninsula truly come to a boil.”