diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
index 802883bfe..12e60d5e6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ jobs:
       with:
         config: './.markdownlint.yaml'
         args: '.'
-    - name: Verify links
+    - name: Verify internal links
       run: ./hack/verify-links.sh
-    - name: Verify link anchors
+    - name: Verify internal link anchors
       run: ./hack/verify-link-anchors.sh 
diff --git a/.github/workflows/link-check.yaml b/.github/workflows/link-check.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e56226a70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/link-check.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+name: external-link-check
+
+on: [pull_request]
+
+jobs:
+  base:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-18.04
+    steps:
+      - name: Check out code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v2
+
+      # NOTE:
+      #  - the check process can be very fast,
+      #    but if `-c` is too large then `Too Many Requests (HTTP error 429)` may be reported from `https://github.com/*`.
+      #  - we hardcode `--document-root` to `/github/workspace` in the container now.
+      #  - we use `http://172.*` as sample addresses in some docs, so we need to exclude them.
+      - name: Check external links in zh files
+        uses: peter-evans/link-checker@v1
+        with:
+          args: -c 32 -d /github/workspace -r -x "http://172.*|https://github.com/pingcap/dm/pull/.*|.*.md" zh*
+
+      - name: Check external links in en files
+        id: lc
+        uses: peter-evans/link-checker@v1
+        with:
+          args: -c 32 -d /github/workspace -r -x "http://172.*|https://github.com/pingcap/dm/pull/.*|.*.md" en*
+
+      - name: Fail if there were external link errors
+        if: ${{ steps.lc.outputs.exit_code }}
+        run: |
+          echo "Please check the broken links reported in previous steps \"Check external links in zh files\" and \"Check external links in en files\"."
+          exit ${{ steps.lc.outputs.exit_code }}
+
+      # Debug via SSH if previous steps failed
+      #- name: Set up tmate session
+      #  if: ${{ failure() }}
+      #  uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v2