The first passenger train service between Beijing and Pyongyang is set to leave China's capital on Thursday (March 12, 2026), ending a six-year gap, as China moves to shore up cross-border infrastructure and rebuild ties with its neighbour.
Train K27 will arrive in 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 in the border city of Dandong, China's railway authority said.
China and North Korea are "friendly neighbours" and a cross-border passenger train service facilitates people-to-people exchanges, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson told reporters on Thursday (March 12, 2026).
China 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.
