East Asia Journal | Manchuria, China | June 2025
The DPRK Borderlands
A bizarre mixture of Chinese tourists taking selfies and border guards with searchlights, the borderlands between North Korea and China shows the disparity between the two authoritarian states. Although under a Communist government, China enjoys a degree of freedom most in North Korea can only dream of such as limited economic and movement freedoms. The Yalu and the Tumen are the two rivers that separate the two countries, with limited bridges connecting them. The border towns attract a considerable number of Chinese tourists, with many tours and attractions advertising peeks into the hermit state. As of 2025, China remains North Korea’s largest trading partner, accounting for around 98% of total trade, in 2023 this was $292 million. The main exports being ores and natural resources, seafood, some manufactured goods and electricity. The rivers separate the worlds second richest country with one of the poorest, and this can be seen along the banks. From Dandong all the way to Fangchuan border tripoint, this photo journal follows the two rivers along the border documenting both sides.
The journal starts in Dandong, a coastal city in Liaoning, south Manchuria. The city is the largest Chinese border city to the DPRK and has a population of around 2 million. It is where most Chinese tourists go to get a glimpse of life over the other side of the Yalu. Dandong itself is not too different from any other modern Chinese city with a McDonalds, modern cars and skyscrapers. Other than the waterfront almost branded as a North Korean theme park, one wouldn’t think they’re next to the world’s most repressive state.
Standing next to the Sino-Korean friendship bridge, the broken Yalu bridge extending halfway into the river was built in 1911 by the Japanese and half destroyed by the U.S. during the Korean war. Today the bridge is used as a close-up viewing platform for North Korea.
A propaganda film depicting Chinese and Korean soldiers during the Korean wars plays on a large screen at the end of the bridge. China and North Korea have been allies since the Korean war, today they have a mutual defence and co-operation agreement formed in 1961 and renewed in 2021.
Chinese women dress up in traditional North Korean female attire for photographs and learn Korean dances. Many tourists buy souvenirs in Dandong such as Korean clothes, food and beer.
Although North Korea has largely kept its borders closed since the Covid-19 pandemic, albeit some business and political delegations and Russian tour groups, trucks can be seen crossing the Sino-Korean friendship bridge every few minutes. Dandong is where much of the trade comes through.
After dark once the tourists have left the waterfront, searchlights from Police cabins stretch across the water looking for defectors. If a defector is caught, they are returned to North Korea where they face potentially fatal consequences.
Across from the busy modern city of Dandong is the North Korean city of Sinuiju. The eastern side of the city has a new development being built with North Korean construction workers visible in their yellow and red helmet. Although the buildings present a modern façade, it is likely they are there to present a more prosperous view of the country. The propaganda banner reads ‘For the eternal prosperity of the country and the wellbeing of people’.
North Korean construction workers.
A North Korean barge leaving Sinuiju in the Yalu River. Old North Korean boats can be seen on the river usually in poor condition and covered in rust. Behind are ruins of a factory likely damaged in the Korean war.
Away from the waterfront in Dandong is the ‘Memorial of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea’, a large memorial complex showcasing some of the weaponry and vehicles used in the Korean war. The war was the last time China and U.S. directly fought each other. Within the complex Chinese Shenyang J-5 jets used in the war are displayed.
Street vendors sell supposed North Korean goods such as cigarettes and currency. Communist style statues line the riverbanks with red scarves tied to them. Many are memorials to those killed in the war.
Further up the river by the North Korean border town of Chongsu, villagers can be seen going about their daily lives. Fishermen work in the river under the watchful eye of border guard posts. Posts designated to keeping people in rather than outsiders from entering. The river banks are silent with the occasional motorcycle riding past, delapidated buildings are common across the countryside, usualy engulfed by trees.
Boat rides down the Yalu River are popular among Chinese tourists that visit the border regions. From Dandong to Hekou Village further up the river, boats leave full of domestic tourists throughout the day. Although it is forbidden to try and contact North Koreans in China, tourists try to shout and wave across the river. North Koreans almost never react.
Four North Korean villagers look across the Yalu River to China.
Next to a busy boat terminal in Hekou Village, immaculately clean bearing a red scarf, a bust of Mao Anying, the eldest son of Chairman Mao Zedong. Anying was a military officer who has served in the second world war. In 1950, At the age of 28 he was killed in Tongchang County, North Korea in a U.S. airstrike during the Korean war.
Two women sit chatting on the banks of Tumen, a border city. Across the water is the North Korean town of Namyang.
The watchtowers, barbed wire and searchlights certainly give the impression of a strong border, combined with the strong police presence anywhere within 20km of the river. However much of the 880-mile border between the two states is porous, the dense forests and hills of southern Manchuria make it hard to effectively patrol all of it, leaving opportunities for many North Koreans to escape. In contrast the border between North and South Korea is one of the most heavily fortified in the world. Prior to 2011, thousands of North Koreans fled via China, with reports suggesting Korean border guards could be easily bribed to allow an illegal exit. Since Kim Jong Un came to power those numbers have decreased significantly each year, with the hermit kingdom becoming increasingly more Totalitarian.
Past the cameras and barbed wire, the dilapidated town of Namyang. The portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il can be seen on the government building.
Just as any other border town along the rivers, domestic tourists come to Tumen to get a glimpse into North Korea. Chinese border posts along the waterfronts are a popular photo spot for those visiting, often seen waving Chinese and North Korean flags. Stalls line the promenade selling binoculars and supposed Korean goods.
Chinese tourists huddling along the border wall watching as a North Korean barge sails down the river.
Despite North Korea being a communist state with virtually no private sector, some paradoxically have described the hermit state as the most capitalist place on earth. Although the ruling Korean Worker’s Party has complete control over all agriculture and production, the black market in North Korea thrives, and acts as an everyday source of goods for millions of people across the country. There is a saying that can be heard along the border is that the only thing you cannot buy on the North Korean black market are cat horns. Because this market is operated by ordinary civilians there is zero regulation and zero state interference meaning those with excess or desired goods are completely in control of the price of their commodities. Everything from surplus food and household goods to western films, technology and even cars and parts can be obtained, with everyone from peasantry to officials using to it. Virtually all black market goods from abroad will enter via border towns such as Tumen.
A woman reads a book along the border wall under the watchful eye of surveillance, Tumen.
Many small agricultural villages are abandoned along the border, some have been left since the Korean war in the 1950s, others are former agricultural collective villages whose residents have likely left for better paying industrial jobs in cities. A small village outside the city of Hunchun in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin, half the buildings sit empty and falling apart. Farmers that remain use all available land around the houses to grow crops.
A road outside Hunchun leading to the border. Military vehicles can sometimes be seen operating within the area. Hunchun itself has heavy Korean and Russian influences due to its proximity to both states.
From Dandong to Hunchun, signs telling people not to interact with the North Koreans line the entire border. Any North Koreans that do make it over the border into China have no guarantee of safety, as China returns any defectors back to Pyongyang where often draconian punishment or death await them. Many will try to travel overland to either Mongolia or Thailand where they will be sent to South Korea, but in China’s surveillance state where every citizen is watched, movement is increasingly difficult. If a defector manages to get to South Korea, they are guaranteed citizenship and help from the government.
Fangchuan, the tripoint between North Korea, China and Russia, is the eastern extremity of the Chinese border. At the end of the slither of land sandwiched between Russia and Korea past the numerous police checkpoints and pine forests, the large viewing tower stands looking over both states. Usually only Chinese and Russian’s are allowed past the checkpoints due to the sensitivity of the area. Despite this it has become a popular stop for domestic tourists along the border, with people queuing up to get pictures with the tripoint behind them.
The Korea-Russia Friendship Bridge over the Tumen River, just past the end of China connects the Russian border town of Khasan to Tumangang by railway line. Built in 1959, the bridge is the only crossing point between the two countries and where most of the trade and exchange come through. After the launch of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Putin has deepened his ties with the totalitarian state, with the bridge being used to carry Kim Jong Un’s bullet proof train to Russia for state visits. As of 2025 North Korea is supplying the Kremlin with arms and personnel to assist in Ukraine.
Watch towers stand in the forest along the Russian border fence. The tripoint area has become somewhat of a nature reserve due to much of the surrounding forests being left untouched. This has created habitats for Siberian Tigers and many species of birds which thrive is this sensitive piece of land
Two men chatting overlooking Tumangang, North Korea, from Fangchuan.
The borderlands between China and North Korea offers insight into a country notoriously difficult to understand and retrieve information from. As of June 2025, North Korea largely remains cut off from the world both politically and culturally, with no sign this will change anytime soon. An opinion shared on the Chinese side is that North Korea acts as a buffer between China, and US-backed South Korea, and that the Kim Dynasty’s brutal regime is a necessary evil to keep the two powers apart. The war in Ukraine however has changed the dynamic in this region, with Russia presenting itself as North Koreas new ‘best friend’ and the strengthening of trade between the two. It was only in 2019 when Trump and Kim Jong Un held a historic summit, yet in September 2025 all three leaders of the authoritarian states, Putin, Kim and Xi Jinping presented a united front at Beijing’s Victory Day Parade as relations between them and the west sink to an all-time low. North Korea’s renewed friendship with Russia could worry the Chinese however who have long kept the hermit state under their wing. A shift in the power dynamic could agitate the Chinese government who are steadily rising to being the dominant superpower on earth, both technologically and militarily. As for now North Korea remains an impoverished third world state which struggles to feed much of its population despite its development of nuclear weapons, and as the authoritarian front of the East grows stronger and more united, it is unlikely liberty will come to those imprisoned within its borders.