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North Korea and China resumed an international passenger train service linking their capitals Thursday for the first time in six years, with a train spotted crossing the border bridge between the two countries.

A nine-car train traveling from Pyongyang to Beijing was seen by Yonhap News Agency passing over the Amnok River bridge, also known as the Yalu River bridge, connecting North Korea’s Sinuiju and China’s Dandong, at around 4:23 p.m.

Some train cars had closed curtains, while passengers were visible in others.

According to China’s Xinhua News Agency, a five-car passenger train departed from the Chinese border city of Dandong at 10 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Pyongyang at 6:07 p.m.

The Dandong-Pyongyang passenger line will operate daily in both directions, Xinhua said, quoting a Chinese official as saying the service will serve as a “dynamic link strengthening the friendship between these two nations.”

Also on Thursday, North Korea and China were set to resume a rail route connecting their capitals, Pyongyang and Beijing.

The resumption marks the first cross-border passenger train service between the two countries since operations were suspended in 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, North Korea resumed direct flight and train services between Pyongyang and Moscow, Russia’s capital.

The reopening of the North Korea-China rail services comes as the two countries appear to be aligning more closely as they seek to repair relations frayed by Pyongyang’s military cooperation with Russia, amid speculation that the United States may seek to reengage Pyongyang for talks.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

Train service linking Pyongyang and Beijing will resume this week for the first time since it was suspended six years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sources said Tuesday.

The Beijing-Pyongyang train route will resume operations Thursday, running four times a week, on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, an official at China State Railway Group told Yonhap News Agency.

The train will depart from Beijing at 5:26 p.m. and arrive in Pyongyang at 6 p.m. the following day, stopping once at the Chinese border city of Dandong en route. The last two train cars will be reserved for passengers, according to sources.

The resumption marks the first cross-border train service between the two countries since operations were suspended following the outbreak of the pandemic.

Last year, North Korea resumed direct flight and train services between Pyongyang and Moscow, Russia’s capital.

The Chinese official said the upcoming Beijing-Pyongyang train will primarily serve diplomats and those on official business trips, while plans to accommodate general passengers will be considered if empty seats are available.

China’s foreign ministry said maintaining a regular passenger train service between China and North Korea takes on “significance” in facilitating exchanges of personnel between the two nations.

“China supports creating more convenient conditions for both sides’ exchanges of personnel by strengthening communication between relevant authorities of the two nations,” Guo Jiakun, spokesperson at the ministry, told a press briefing.

The move comes as North Korea and China appears to be seeking to promote cooperation amid the fluid international situation, highlighted by U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and the subsequent intensifying conflict in the Middle East.

North Korea also seems to be trying to expand cooperation with China as speculation arises that U.S. President Donald Trump may seek to resume diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on the occasion of his planned trip to Beijing on March 31-April 2.

North Korea’s ties with China, the North’s traditional ally and economic benefactor, became cool amid Pyongyang’s deepening military cooperation with Russia on the occasion of Moscow’s war with Ukraine.

Kim held summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in September last year on the occasion of a Chinese military parade and discussed ways to improve bilateral ties.

But relations between Pyongyang and Beijing do not appear to be restored in a full-fledged manner with no signs of high-level exchanges of personnel spotted.

“The government is closely monitoring the development of Korean Peninsula affairs, including North-China relations,” an official at South Korea’s foreign ministry said.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

1 of 8 | A National Park Service volunteer etches a name onto paper at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial during Memorial Day weekend in Washington, D.C., on May 27, 2023. On March 8, 1965, about 3,500 U.S. Marines landed in Da Nang, South Vietnam. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

March 8 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1817, the New York Stock Exchange was established.

In 1913, the Internal Revenue Service began to levy and collect income taxes in the United States.

In 1914, International Women’s Day was observed on March 8 for the first time and would go on to be marked on this day annually. The United Nations began officially celebrating the day in 1977.

In 1917, strikes and riots in St. Petersburg marked the start of the Russian Bolshevik revolution.

In 1921, after Germany failed to make its first war reparation payment, French troops occupied Dusseldorf and other towns on the Ruhr River in Germany’s industrial heartland.

In 1943, Allied planes led by the Royal Air Force bombed the German city of Nuremberg, an important military manufacturing site. By the end of World War II, the vast majority of the city was destroyed by Allied bombings.

In 1957, Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international traffic after Israel withdrew from occupied Egyptian territory.

In 1965, about 3,500 U.S. Marines landed in Da Nang, South Vietnam. It was the first deployment of a large U.S. ground combat unit to the country, marking the United States’s official entry in the Vietnam War.

In 1974, the streaking epidemic that had been gripped parts of the United States appeared to run its logical course.

In 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” in a speech before the British House of Commons.

In 1990, Colombia’s M-19 leftist guerrilla group surrendered its arms, ending 16 years of insurrection.

In 1999, baseball great Joe DiMaggio died at age 84.

In 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush vetoed legislation that would have outlawed severe interrogation methods such as waterboarding used by the CIA. Bush said the proposal would eliminate “one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror.”

In 2010, up to 500 people were killed in a nighttime “ethnic cleansing” raid on a village near Nigeria’s turbulent city of Jos.

In 2013, former Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem and ex-Defense Minister Oscar Camilion were convicted of smuggling weapons to Croatia and Ecuador.

In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 carrying 239 people vanished over the Indian Ocean en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. A massive search found no sign of the plane and a government statement months later said all aboard — 227 passengers and 12 crew members — “are presumed to have lost their lives.”

In 2022, David Bennett, a 57-year-old man who became the first to receive a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig, died two months after the historic surgery.

In 2024, a U.S. Defense Department report found no evidence that the U.S. government is aware of and concealing the truth about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UFOs.

March 7 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone.

In 1918, Finland signed a peace treaty with Germany shortly after declaring independence from Russia.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler ordered Nazi troops into the Rhineland, violating the Treaty of Versailles.

In 1945, the U.S. 1st Army crossed the Rhine at Remagen, Germany after capturing the strategically important Ludendorff Bridge (also known as the Bridge at Remagen). World War II in Europe ended two months later.

In 1965, hundreds of civil rights marchers trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., were turned back by state troopers and sheriff’s deputies. Dozens of people were beaten and injured in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Marchers voluntarily turned around on a ceremonial walk to the bridge two days later and, on March 21, with protection by federal and National Guard troops, the main Selma-to-Montgomery march began.

In 1984, the U.S. Senate confirmed William Wilson as the first U.S. ambassador to the Vatican in 117 years.

In 1985, “We Are the World,” a song composed by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and recorded by a series of high-profile music stars was released worldwide with the goal of generating funds for the USA for Africa charity. The song and related promotions eventually raised about $63 million.

In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director for her film The Hurt Locker.

In 2013, the U.S. Senate confirmed John Brennan as director of the CIA.

In 2017, Malta’s iconic Azure Window, a natural rock arch, collapsed into the sea during a storm.

In 2024, Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO after a longstanding policy of nonalignment.