The primary passenger prepare service between Beijing and Pyongyang is about to depart China’s capital on Thursday (March 12, 2026), ending a six-year hole, as China strikes to shore up cross-border infrastructure and rebuild ties with its neighbour.
Prepare K27 will arrive within the North Korean capital at 6:07 p.m. (0907 GMT) on Friday (March 13, 2026), after a journey of 24 hours and 41 minutes skirting north of the Bohai Sea with a stopover within the border metropolis of Dandong, China’s railway authority stated.
China and North Korea are “pleasant neighbours” and a cross-border passenger prepare service facilitates people-to-people exchanges, a Overseas Ministry spokesperson advised reporters on Thursday (March 12, 2026).
China additionally backs stronger communication between either side to ease such exchanges, the spokesperson added.
The service was suspended when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020.
North Korea is essentially closed to overseas tourism, with few exceptions, largely for Russian tour teams underneath restricted preparations, say journey businesses organising journeys to the nation.
Restricted tickets
The service linking the capitals will function 4 days every week in each instructions, working on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, China’s railways stated in a discover.
Tickets, restricted to enterprise visa holders, have been offered out for Thursday’s (March 12, 2026) journey, however these for March 18 have been nonetheless out there, a Beijing journey company stated.
The shorter Dandong-Pyongyang hyperlink will function day by day in each instructions, with the primary service leaving China’s northeastern metropolis of Dandong at 10 a.m. on Thursday (March 12, 2026) to reach in Pyongyang at 6:07 p.m., the official information company Xinhua stated.
Cross-border flights have been additionally halted throughout the pandemic.
North Korea’s state provider Air Koryo resumed flights to China in 2023 and now affords providers between the capitals twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays, its web site reserving service confirmed.
Revealed – March 12, 2026 02:31 pm IST