Kimch'aek (), formerly Sŏngjin (
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 ...
: 성진,
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 ...
: 城津), is a city in
North Hamgyong
North Hamgyong Province (Hamgyŏngbukdo, ) is the northernmost province of North Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Hamgyong Province.
Geography
The province is bordered by China (Jilin) on the north, ...
Province,
North Korea. It was an open port in 1899.
It has a population of 207,699.
Etymology
The city received its current name in 1951 during the
Korean War, in honor of the
Korean People's Army (KPA) general,
Kim Chaek.
It was known as Jōshin during
Japanese rule between 1910 and 1945.
Climate
Kimchaek has a hot-summer
humid continental climate (
Köppen climate classification: ''Dfb'').
Administrative divisions
Kimch'aek-si is divided into 22 ''
tong'' (neighbourhoods) and 22 ''
ri'' (villages):
Economy
Kimchaek is an important port on the
Sea of Japan (East Sea of Korea), and is home to an
ironworks
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''.
Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...
and the
Kimch’aek Polytechnic Institute.
Transport
Kimchaek is on the
Pyongra Line
The P'yŏngra Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the Korean State Railway in North Korea, running from P'yŏngyang to Rason, where it connects with the Hambuk Line.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), I ...
railway.
The city has one trolleybus line, with a length of 9.1 km, running from Songnam-dong to Haksong-dong with the depot located in Sinpyong-dong.
See also
*
List of cities in North Korea
The important cities of North Korea have self-governing status equivalent to that of provinces. Pyongyang, the largest city and capital, is classified as a chikhalsi (Special cities of North Korea, capital city), while three cities (see the list ...
*
Geography of North Korea
Notes
References
Further reading
*Dormels, Rainer. North Korea's Cities: Industrial facilities, internal structures and typification. Jimoondang, 2014.
External links
City profile of Kimchaek
Cities in North Hamgyong
Port cities and towns in North Korea
{{NorthKorea-geo-stub