▲ This photo, taken March 13, 2026, shows an electronic board pointing to the arrival of a passenger train linking the capitals of North Korea and China. The train departed from Pyongyang the previous day and arrived in Beijing at 8:40 a.m. (Yonhap)
▲ A passenger train departing from Beijing, bound for Pyongyang, is seen in this photo taken March 12, 2026. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) N Korea-China-train service

(LEAD) Passenger train linking N. Korea, China arrives in Beijing for 1st time in 6 years

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details throughout)

SEOUL/BEIJING, March 13 (Yonhap) -- A passenger train linking the capitals of North Korea and China arrived in Beijing on Friday after the two nations resumed such train service for the first time in six years.

The train, which departed Pyongyang at 10:26 a.m. the previous day, arrived at the Beijing Railway Station at 8:40 a.m.

Another passenger train from Beijing to Pyongyang departed at 5:26 p.m. Thursday and is scheduled to arrive in Pyongyang at 6:07 p.m. Friday. It will stop in China's Tianjin, Shanhaiguan, Shenyang and Dandong before traveling into North Korea via its northwestern border city of Sinuiju.

The resumption of rail service marked the first cross-border passenger train service between the two countries since operations were suspended in 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Passenger trains between Pyongyang and Beijing operate four times a week in both directions -- on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the railway said. The journey between Beijing and Pyongyang takes about 25 hours.

Passenger train service linking Pyongyang and the Chinese border city of Dandong will also operate daily in two directions.

The passenger train service, which began in 1954, has long been regarded as a symbol of friendship between the two countries. China is North Korea's traditional ally and economic benefactor.

In 2022, the two nations resumed cross-border cargo train service connecting Dandong and Sinuiju. But despite the North's reopening of its border in 2023, ties between Pyongyang and Beijing remained cool due to North Korea's military cooperation with Russia.

The reopening of the cross-border rail service appears to indicate the two nations saw the need to restore their relations in earnest amid the fluid international situation. The resumption is widely expected to bolster bilateral exchanges of personnel as well as economic cooperation and help the North's push to foster tourism.

In September last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing for the first time in six years and agreed to deepen economic cooperation and improve ties.

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