The Trucks, Silence, and Rhythm of the Yalu
Observations from a border city.
My studies regarding North Korea did not begin at the border. My interest began during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when even the smallest borders felt much more tangible. Isolated within my high school bedroom, confined to screens and maps, I found myself increasingly drawn to the Korean Peninsula—not as a geopolitical black box, but rather as a region shaped by separation, proximity, and memory. At that time, my interest lived entirely within the page.
As the pandemic progressed, this study led to language, and language then led to China. While studying Mandarin and later spending a summer in Beijing, the initial questions that I had within my now distant bedroom began to rearrange themselves spatially. I found that broader China-Korea relations were no longer something that should be examined through statements or recounted histories, but rather, they are embedded within geography. As I looked towards a map, that pull was unmistakable: the Northeast.
The border that separates China and North Korea is frequently described through broad terms. The border is either open or closed, active or quiet. These words are easily circulated in headlines and policy discussions, though they seldom capture what the border actually looks like when nothing appears to be happening. In Dandong, the border is a rhythm. Here, at times, the movement is slow enough to be overlooked.
As I stood next to the river during the summer of 2025, I noticed that border activity is not constant. Some days, trucks move steadily through checkpoints before they disappear inland. On the others, those same roads sit empty. Infrastructure remains, the facilities are staffed, and nothing signals a substantial change. The only difference, however, is the actual motion itself.
In no way does this post attempt to explain why such rhythms shift. Instead, it begins with observation: how movement appears, how it fades, and how silence becomes interpretable over time.