This study seeks to assess the current state of North Korea-China relations and anticipate the foreseeable future of the relationship by closely examining changes to city spaces in Sinuiju, North Korea’s primary gateway city and the center of trade between North Korea and China. Specifically, three changes are examined. First, analysis will focus on the completed construction of the road that connects the South Sinuiju district to the New Yalu River bridge, which had been delayed since the latter was completed in 2014. Second, the study identifies signs of how the plan for the development of Sinuiju has shifted from a uni-polarized plan centered on the Sinuiju district to a multi-polarized plan that includes the South Sinuiju district as well, in sync with the completion of this connecting road. Third, the study assesses the possibility that Uiju airfield, which has been utilized as a cargo to receive goods and resources from China under the emergency quarantine situation, may be transformed back into a military airbase. Based on analysis of these three changes, the bottom-up geo-economic dynamism created by the Dandong-Sinuiju border region will highly likely to act as a catalyst that will further strengthen the alliance partnership in North Korea-China relations at the level of high politics.
