The Pothong River (Pot'ong River, Potonggang or Potong) is a river in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. It flows through the capital

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

and is a tributary of the

Taedong River The Taedong River () is a large river in North Korea. The river rises in the Rangrim Mountains of the country's north where it then flows southwest into Korea Bay at Namp'o.Suh, Dae-Sook (1987) "North Korea in 1986: Strengthening the Soviet ...

. There are several bridges across the river in Pyongyang, including one at its mouth called the "Pothong Bridge"; however, the largest is the one known as "Ansan Bridge", , which supports the main east–west divided highway. Prior to 1946, the arable land west of Pyongyang alongside the river (the flood plain), down to where it entered the Taedong River was subject to annual flooding. This area was known as ''Tosongrang''. The farmers there annually rebuilt their homes after the floods subsided, so the construction was, perforce, of a temporary nature, huts and even

pit-house A pit-house (or pit house, pithouse) is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, this type of earth shelter may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a l ...

s. In 1946 the river was channelized through ''Tosongrang'' as the "Pothong River Improvement Project". ''Tosongrang'' is now part of Pyongyang. In 1971, in a park on Mount Bonghwa, a hill on the left (east) bank of the river, the government erected a monument for the "Pothong River Improvement Project", . It commemorates

Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung (born Kim Song Ju; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he led as its first Supreme Leader (North Korean title), supreme leader from North Korea#Founding, its establishm ...

's 1945 visit to ''Tosongrang'' and the 1946 channelization. In 1976 the North Korean postal service (DPRK) issued a stamp commemorating Kim Il Sung's 1945 visit to ''Tosongrang''. In 1998, they issued a stamp souvenir sheet showing Kim Il Sung breaking ground for the construction of the channelization project.Scott #3790 - Scott (2008), page 326.

Notes and references

External links

Photo of monument with downtown Pyongyang in the background
{{Coord, 37, 00, 07, N, 125, 41, 54, E, display=title Rivers of North Korea Geography of Pyongyang South Pyongan