The Songrim Line is a partially electrified standard-gauge secondary line 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 ...

South Hwanghae Province South Hwanghae Province (Hwanghaenamdo; , lit. "south Yellow Sea province") is a province in western North Korea. The province was formed in 1954 when the former Hwanghae Province was split into North and South Hwanghae. The provincial capital i ...

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 ...

, running from

Hwangju Hwangju County is a county in North Hwanghae province, North Korea. Geography Hwangju is bordered to the northwest by Sariwŏn, to the northeast by Songrim and Kangnam, to the southwest by Yŏnt'an, to the south by Pongsan, and to the southeast ...

on the

P'yŏngbu Line The P'yŏngbu Line is an electrified standard-gauge trunk line of the Korean State Railway running from P'yŏngyang to Kaesŏng in North Korea and further south across the DMZ to Seoul in South Korea; the name comes from the two (theoretical) term ...

Songrim Songrim () is a city on the Taedong River in North Hwanghae Province, North Korea. It had a population of 128,831 in 2008. Administrative divisions Songrim is divided into 19 ''tong'' (neighbourhoods) and 6 '' ri'' (villages): * Chŏn-dong * ...

.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), The line continues past Songrim Ch'ŏngnyŏn Station to the freight-only Songrim Hwamul Station and the Hwanghae Iron & Steel Complex.

History

Originally built by the

Chosen Government Railway Chosen or The Chosen may refer to: The chosen ones *Chosen people, people who believe they have been chosen by a higher power to do a certain thing including **Jews as the chosen people Books *The Chosen (Potok novel), ''The Chosen'' (Potok novel ...

(''Sentetsu'') as the Kyŏmip'o Line (겸이포선, 兼二浦線), construction was completed in November 1905, and revenue operations began on 1 April 1908. Changch'ŏlli Station was opened by Sentetsu on 5 December 1915.朝鮮總督府官報 (The Public Journal of the Governor-General of Korea), Taishō No. 998, 1 December 1915 Originally built to serve the Mitsubishi Iron Foundry (called the Hwanghae Iron & Steel Complex since 1945), in 1920 there was one daily round-trip through train between

P'yŏngyang 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 population ...

and Kyŏmip'o, along with five daily round-trip local trains (second and third class only) between Hwangju and Kyŏmip'o.Official Guide to Eastern Asia vol. 1 Chōsen & Manchuria, Siberia, p. 133, Department of Railways, Tokyo, 1920 After the defeat of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

and the subsequent

partition of Korea The division of Korea began with the defeat of Japan in World War II. During the war, the Allied leaders considered the question of Korea's future after Japan's surrender in the war. The leaders reached an understanding that Korea would be li ...

, the entirety of the line, being north of the 38th parallel, was located in the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

zone of occupation; on 10 August 1946, the

Provisional People's Committee for North Korea The Provisional People's Committee of North Korea was the provisional government of North Korea. The committee was established on 8 February 1946 in response for the need of the Soviet Civil Administration and the communists to have centralizatio ...

nationalised all railways within its jurisdiction, including the Songrim Line, and it has since been operated by the

Route

A yellow background in the "Distance" box indicates that section of the line is not electrified.

References

* Japanese Government Railways (1937), 鉄道停車場一覧. 昭和12年10月1日現在(The List of the Stations as of 1 October 1937), Kawaguchi Printing Company, Tokyo, pp. 486 {{coord missing, North Korea Railway lines in North Korea Standard gauge railways in North Korea