Sonbong County, formerly called Unggi (

Chosŏn'gŭl The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's Revised Romanization of Korean, standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system f ...

: 웅기,

Hancha Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, whi ...

: 雄基), is a subdivision of the

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 ...

n city of

Rason Rason (formerly Rajin-Sŏnbong; ) is a North Korean special city and ice-free port in the Sea of Japan in the North Pacific Ocean on the northeast tip of North Korea. It is in the Kwanbuk region and location of the Rason Special Economic Zon ...

. It is located at the northeastern extreme of North Korea, bordering

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

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 ...

. It lies on

Unggi Bay Sonbong County, formerly called Unggi (Chosŏn'gŭl: 웅기, Hancha: 雄基), is a subdivision of the North Korean city of Rason. It is located at the northeastern extreme of North Korea, bordering Russia and China. It lies on Unggi Bay, an extensi ...

, an extension of the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

(East Sea of Korea). A

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

mine is allegedly located there, as is a 200

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

oil-fired

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

. The word Sonbong means "Vanguard" in Korean. The Sonbong Revolutionary Site there is dedicated to a visit by

Kim Jong-suk Kim Jong-suk (; 24 December 1917Suh Dae-sook. Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. – 22 September 1949) was a Korean anti-Japanese guerrilla, a Communist activist, North Korean leader Kim Il ...

in November 1945 "upholding the policy of building a new country advanced by President Kim Il Sung" after the

liberation of Korea The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

. It includes the

Sonbong Revolutionary Museum Sonbong County, formerly called Unggi (Chosŏn'gŭl: 웅기, Hancha: 雄基), is a subdivision of the North Korean city of Rason. It is located at the northeastern extreme of North Korea, bordering Russia and China. It lies on Unggi Bay, an extensi ...

, a monument to the historic site, and the house where she stayed.

Administrative divisions

Sonbong County is divided into 1 town ("Ŭp"), 2 worker's districts ("Rodongjagu") and 10 villages ("Ri"): * Sŏnbong-ŭp (선봉읍/先鋒邑) * Tuman'gang-rodongjagu (두만강로동자구/豆滿江勞動者區) * Ungsang-rodongjagu (웅상로동자구/雄尙勞動者區) * Chosal-li (조산리/造山里) * Hahoe-ri (하회리/下檜里) * Hayŏp'yŏng-ri (하여평리/下汝坪里) * Hongŭi-ri (홍의리/洪儀里) * Kulp'o-ri (굴포리/屈浦里) * Paekhang-ri (백학리/白鶴里) * Pup'o-ri (부포리/鮒浦里) * Sahoe-ri (사회리/四會里) * Uam-ri (우암리/牛岩里) * Wŏnjŏng-ri (원정리/元汀里)

Climate

Sonbong has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Dfb DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

) with mild to warm, rainy summers and cold, long winters. Seasons are somewhat moderated by the presence of the

Transportation

Sonbong is North Korea's rail link to Russia. A rail bridge crosses the

Tumen River The Tumen River, also known as the Tuman River or Duman River (), is a long river that serves as part of the boundary between China, North Korea and Russia, rising on the slopes of Mount Paektu and flowing into the Sea of Japan. The river has ...

between the border rail stations of Tumangang Workers' District, Sonbong, and Khasan, Russia. This connection lies on one of two proposed paths for linking

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

by rail to the

Trans-Siberian Railroad The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the eas ...

and the rest of

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

, the other being through

Sinuiju Sinŭiju (''Sinŭiju-si'', ; known before 1925 in English as Yeng Byen City) is a city in North Korea which faces Dandong, Liaoning, China across the international border of the Yalu River. It is the capital of North P'yŏngan province. Part of ...

. The rail link through Sonbong is lightly used, carrying only 10,000 passengers in 2005. Sonbong is one terminus of the

Hambuk Line The Hambuk Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the Korean State Railway in North Korea, running from Ch'ŏngjin) on the P'yŏngra Line to Rajin, likewise on the P'yŏngra line.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama n ...

railroad. It is also served by roads. There is a seaport and a wharf at

Sonbong Port Sonbong County, formerly called Unggi (Chosŏn'gŭl: 웅기, Hancha: 雄基), is a subdivision of the North Korean city of Rason. It is located at the northeastern extreme of North Korea, bordering Russia and China. It lies on Unggi Bay, an extensi ...

References

External links

Tumen River Area Development Program profile of the area
{{Rason Counties of North Korea Uranium mines Mining in North Korea Rason

Administrative divisions

Climate

Transportation

See also

References

External links