Ryongch'ŏn County is a ''kun'' (county) in North P'yǒngan province,

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 shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, at the mouth of the

Yalu River The Yalu River, known by Koreans as the Amrok River or Amnok River, is a river on the border between North Korea and China. Together with the Tumen River to its east, and a small portion of Paektu Mountain, the Yalu forms the border between ...

. The county seat is Ryongch'ŏn-ŭp, about from the border with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The area has a reported population of 27,000 and is a centre of

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

and

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

production.

Administrative divisions

Ryongch'ŏn county is divided into 1 '' ŭp'' (town), 3 '' rodongjagu'' (workers' districts) and 19 '' ri'' (villages):

Transport

The

P'yŏngŭi line The P'yŏngŭi Line is an electrified main trunk line of the Korean State Railway of North Korea, running from P'yŏngyang to Sinŭiju on the border with China.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), It is the main co ...

of the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway (), commonly called the State Rail () is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea and has its headquarters at P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun Song. History 1945–195 ...

, running between China and P'yŏngyang runs through Ryongchŏn and is served by several stations, including in Ryongch'ŏn-ŭp. It is the busiest line in the country, crossing the border in nearby Sinŭiju, North Korea to Dandong, China.

Ryongch'ŏn disaster

On 22 April 2004, the town suffered a major disaster when a flammable cargo exploded at the town's railway station, causing many deaths and much destruction, known as the Ryongch'ŏn disaster.

Protests

In February 2011, the area and others in North P'yŏngan had rare protests, of a few score of people, calling for adequate provision of rice and power. At the time, news of the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...

was spreading via Chinese TV channels and phone calls with defectors.Can the 'Jasmine Revolution' Spread to N.Korea?
, Chosun Ilbo, 23 February 2011

References

External links