First train to Pyongyang in six years set to leave Beijing as neighbors revive link

The first passenger train service between Beijing and Pyongyang is set to leave China’s capital on Thursday, ending a six-year gap, as China moves to shore up cross-border infrastructure and rebuild ties with its neighbor.

BEIJING — The first passenger train service between Beijing and Pyongyang is set to leave China’s capital on Thursday, ending a six-year gap, as China moves to shore up cross-border infrastructure and rebuild ties with its neighbor.

Train K27 will arrive in the North Korean capital at 6:07 p.m. (5:07 a.m. ET) on Friday, after a journey of 24 hours and 41 minutes skirting north of the Bohai Sea with a stopover in the border city of Dandong, China’s railway authority said.

China and North Korea are “friendly neighbors” and a cross-border passenger train service facilitates people-to-people exchanges, a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.

A man holding a banner reading ‘Beijing-Pyongyang’ in front of the K27 train bound for Pyongyang at Beijing Railway Station on Thursday.Adek Berry / AFP via Getty ImagesChina also backs stronger communication between both sides to ease such exchanges, the spokesperson added.

The service was suspended when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in 2020.