The Reunification Highway, officially known as the Pyongyang-Kaesong Motorway (), is a
controlled-access highway 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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
. It connects the capital
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...
to the
Joint Security Area
The Joint Security Area (JSA, often referred to as the Truce Village or Panmunjom) is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face. The JSA is used by the two Koreas for dipl ...
at the
Korean Demilitarized Zone
The Korean Demilitarized Zone ( Korean: ; Hanbando Bimujang Jidae) is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in ...
via
Sariwon
Sariwŏn () is the capital of North Hwanghae Province, North Korea.
Population
The city's population as of 2008 is 307,764.
Administrative divisions
Sariwŏn is divided into 31 ''tong'' (neighbourhoods) and 9 '' ri'' (villages):
Healthcare
...
and
Kaesong. The distance to
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
is present on signs on the highway, although it is not possible to cross the border to South Korea.
It is 170 km long,
with multiple paved lanes and several tunnels. Tourists have reported that there is very light traffic, as well as multiple checkpoints and
tank trap
Anti-tank obstacles include, but are not limited to:
*The Czech hedgehog and Dragon's teeth are the most famous types of World War II anti-tank obstacles.
* Anti-tank trenches were used on the western front during World War I, and in the Pacific ...
s.
Construction began in 1987 in preparation for the
13th World Festival of Youth and Students
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...
to be held in Pyongyang in 1989. The project was economically ill-advised because North Korea had hitherto consistently focused on developing railway links for transport, diminishing the need for new expressways.
Construction finished on April 15, 1992,
the birthday of North Korea's president
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 ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...
. Its name was chosen to promote the
reunification of Korea. The entire highway is part of
Asian Highway 1
Asian Highway 1 (AH1) is the longest route of the Asian Highway Network, running from Tokyo, Japan via Korea, China, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran to the border between Turkey and Bulgaria west of Istanbul ...
.
References
External links
*
{{coords, 38.4349, 126.1387, display=title
Roads in North Korea
AH1