Advertisement

China launches high-speed train line to North Korea border

China has committed time and money to borderland projects in the past, and the new train travels to Dandong, a hub of North Korea-China trade.

By Elizabeth Shim
A Chinese barge transports a CAT backhoe down the Yalu River past the North Korean city of Sinuiju (background), across the Yalu River from Dandong, China's largest border city with North Korea, in Liaoning Province, on May 30. A new 129-mile high-speed train line began operations Tuesday from Shenyang, the largest city in China’s northeast, to the border city. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI
A Chinese barge transports a CAT backhoe down the Yalu River past the North Korean city of Sinuiju (background), across the Yalu River from Dandong, China's largest border city with North Korea, in Liaoning Province, on May 30. A new 129-mile high-speed train line began operations Tuesday from Shenyang, the largest city in China’s northeast, to the border city. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

BEIJING, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- China began operations on a new high-speed rail line to the North Korea border on Tuesday that will significantly reduce travel time between two cities in the northeast.

The 129-mile line runs from Shenyang, the largest city in China's northeast, to Dandong, the border city directly across from the North Korean city of Sinuiju. The Los Angeles Times reported the project is part of a bigger push in China to build infrastructure and demonstrate Beijing's "soft power" to neighbors.

Advertisement

Quoting a statement from the Shenyang Railway Bureau, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported a trip that took about three-and-a-half hours will now take about an hour and 10 minutes to complete on the new high-speed train.

China has committed time and money to borderland projects in the past, and last week Beijing said it was getting ready to open a border trade zone in Dandong to open in October during the North Korea-China Economic, Trade, Culture and Tourism Expo.

But Scott Kennedy, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' project on Chinese business and political economy, said that the line only covers a small corridor of land near North Korea.

Advertisement

"This is not that big a deal, economically. It may actually help the city of Shenyang more than it helps Chinese-North Korean relations," Kennedy said.

The area near Shenyang is a rust belt zone with large, inefficient state-owned industries, according to Kennedy, and the construction that began in 2010 was likely launched with Chinese job creation in mind.

In recent years, however, Beijing has been devoting capital to constructing special economic zones and infrastructure aimed at encouraging economic reforms in North Korea – and Dandong is the headquarters of more than 600 China-North Korea trade enterprises. Business with North Korea comprises 40 percent of the city's total trade.

North Korea is heavily dependent on trade with China and has not always responded to China's cues for greater exchange. China accounts for 80 percent of North Korea trade, according to Wei Liang, a professor of international relations and trade at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey.

Latest Headlines