The Korea–Russia Friendship Bridge ( ''Chosŏn–Rossiya Ujŏngŭi Dali'', ) is a

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

bridge over the

Tumen River The Tumen River (, , ; Korean pronunciation: tumaŋaŋ">Help:IPA/Korean">tumaŋaŋ, also known as the Tuman River or Duman River, is a long river that serves as part of the boundary between China (left shore), North Korea (right) and Russi ...

. It was commissioned in 1959 as a replacement for a temporary

wooden Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

bridge. Located immediately downstream from the China–North Korea–Russia tripoint, the bridge is the sole crossing point on the 17 km long

North Korea–Russia border The North Korea–Russia border, according to the official Russian definition, consists of of "terrestrial border" and 22.1 km (12 nautical miles) of "maritime border". It is the shortest of the international borders of Russia. Description ...

. Planks are laid between the tracks making crossing of road vehicles possible by special arrangement, but it is primarily a rail bridge. The tracks are

dual gauge Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

because the Russian railroad system uses a

track gauge In rail transport, track gauge is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have Wheelset (rail transport), wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many different track gauges ...

of 1,520 mm () while the North Korean system uses 1,435 mm (). The bridge is served by the Khasan railway station on Russian soil and Tumangang Station on the North Korean side of the river. In October 2017 a fiber optic cable running across the bridge provided North Korea with an additional connection to the global Internet through Russia's TransTelekom provider, a subsidiary of Russian national railway operator

Russian Railways Russian Railways or RZD () is a Russian fully state-owned vertically integrated railway company, both managing infrastructure and operating freight and passenger train services and has a near-monopoly on long-distance train travel in Russia. ...

. It allows the country to be less dependent on its primary internet connection through

China Unicom China United Network Communications Group (China Unicom) is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications operator. Originally founded (on January 6 2009) as a wireless paging and GSM mobile operator, it currently provides a range of services inclu ...

(similarly running over the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge), after it was the target of a

DDoS In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyberattack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host co ...

attack during the

2017 North Korea crisis Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number) * One of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017, 2117 Science * Chlorine, a halogen in the periodic table * 17 Thetis, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American mag ...

. Use of the bridge was suspended through the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with use resuming in November 2022.

References

External links

* North Korea–Russia border crossings Bridges in North Korea Railway bridges in Russia Bridges completed in 1959 Bridges built in the Soviet Union Korea–Soviet Union relations International bridges in North Korea Soviet foreign aid 1959 establishments in Russia 1959 establishments in North Korea Bridges over the Tumen River International bridges in Russia {{NorthKorea-struct-stub

See also

References

External links