Kim Jong Un is working more closely with Russia, but he still has plenty of reasons to keep China close. His latest visit gave Beijing a chance to show it wants to remain North Korea's main supporter, as experts say Moscow is giving Kim more choices.

The North Korean leader spent October 24 in the Chinese border city of Dandong and returned home that day. He met Wang Huning, one of China's top officials, visited a Korean War memorial and toured a car factory. Xi Jinping sent his greetings through Wang. Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, was also on the trip.

China wants to keep Kim close

China's official report, published by Xinhua, said Wang wanted the new bridge between the countries to help bring more trade and more people across the border. Kim thanked China for its support and said he wanted the countries to do more together.

China and North Korea also signed a treaty promising to help each other in 1961.

Carla Freeman of Johns Hopkins University told The Guardian that China tolerates the growing Russia-North Korea relationship but watches it closely. It makes China's own dealings with Kim harder.

Kim has spent recent years giving Russia troops and weapons for its war in Ukraine. He and Vladimir Putin signed a defense pact in 2024 that promises help if either country is attacked. Their relationship gives Kim another powerful government to turn to, after years of relying heavily on China.

The new bridge gives China something practical to offer

The four-lane New Yalu River Bridge connects Dandong with Sinuiju in North Korea. As Apex previously reported, it opened on October 15, more than a decade after construction finished in 2014. Roads and customs facilities on the North Korean side had held up its use.

Trucks can now travel in both directions across the new bridge, easing pressure on the older crossing nearby. North Korea and Russia also opened their first road bridge just over a month earlier.

For Kim, both routes offer ways to get goods into a country whose economy has long been held back by isolation and trade restrictions. For China, more trade could help keep it central to North Korea's future.

U.N. sanctions still limit what North Korea can buy and sell. Justin Hastings, a professor at the University of Sydney, says those rules put bigger limits on trade than the lack of roads and bridges. He also says China's weak enforcement and Russia's rejection of the rules have given North Korea more room to trade.

Kim still wants to make his own decisions

China and Russia both support Kim, but that doesn't give either country a free hand to tell him what to do. Fyodor Tertitskiy, a North Korea expert at Korea University in Seoul, doubts that either can force him to give up his nuclear weapons or loosen his hold on power.

He said:

"Kim is trying to play the two against each other, but China and Russia are not rivals like the Soviet Union and China were in the 1970s."

Kim's visit also comes as Donald Trump hopes to arrange another meeting with him. The Associated Press reported that Kim has so far rejected efforts to restart talks that broke down in 2019. The next possible opening is the APEC summit in China in November, though no Trump-Kim meeting has been announced.

More help from abroad may also give Kim less reason to change how his economy works. Tertitskiy questioned whether the new bridges would bring reforms that improve ordinary North Koreans' lives:

"Why pursue reforms and take risks when you can just get what you need from abroad?"