Work starts on North Korea-Russia bridge

Ground has been broken for a motorway bridge linking the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation.

The groundbreaking ceremony was simultaneously held in North Korean border city Rason and Russian border Hassan on April 30, according to a report in North Korea's international broadcasting service Voice of Korea.

Voice of Korea added that work has started on the project at the bridge construction sites on both sides of the border.

The news service added that the project is of "substantial and great significance" in the development of economic relations between the two countries.

Pak Thae Song, Premier of the Cabinet of the DPRK, and Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, attended the ceremony via video conferencing in Pyongyang and Moscow. Mishustin said that the bridge across the Tumen river is expected to be completed in around 18 months.