Chŏngju (; also Jŏngju) is a '' si'', or city, in southern North P'yŏngan 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 borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. Prior to 1994, it was designated as a ''kun'' or county. The terrain is mostly level, but mountainous in the north. To the south lies the Chongju Plain, where the hills do not rise above . Chŏngju also includes approximately 10 islands in the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four ...

History

Artifacts from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

period and the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

were found in the Taesan-ri area (this was formerly a region of Seoksandong and Taesandong under the administrative division of Teokeon-myeon), showing evidence of human existence at the time in the area. When it was under the control of Goguryeo, it was under the subdivision of Mannyeon County, and it was under control of the Pyongyang Amnok subdivision during the Balhae period. After the fall of balhae and before Goryeo reacquired the area, the region was occupied by the jurchens. During the Goryeo period, it was known as ''guju'', meaning "turtle province". In 1231, King Gojong of Goryeo promoted the region into ''jeongwondaehobu'', and the region later became Jeongjumok. Jeongjumok was divided into Sucheon county and Kusong county, but it was soon again remerged as Jeongjumok. The region was demoted as Jeongwon prefecture in 1812. In 1895, it became Jeongju County which was under control of Uijubu.

Geography

Approximately 40% of Chŏngju is covered by coniferous forestland.

Administrative divisions

Chŏngju is divided into 14 '' tong'' (neighbourhoods) and 18 '' ri'' (villages):

Economy

Local agriculture is dominated by orcharding and rice farming; the chestnuts of this region are especially famous.

Transportation

The city is served by both road and rail; it is the junction point of the P'yŏngŭi and P'yŏngbuk lines of the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea (), commonly called the State Rail () and has its headquarters at Pyongyang, P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun-song. History 19 ...

Politics

In February 2011, the city 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 () 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 Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

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

Notable people

* Baek Seok - Poet * Hong Yun-suk (YeoSa) - Poet * Kim Ok - Poet * Ki-baik Lee - Historian *

Sun Myung Moon Sun Myung Moon (; born Moon Yong-myeong; 6 January 1920 – 3 September 2012) was a Korean religious leader, also known for his business ventures and support for conservative political causes. A messiah claimant, he was the founder of the ...

- Founder of the

Unification Church The Unification Church () is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unificatio ...

and

messiah claimant In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach' ...

* Pang Chol-mi - Boxer * Yi Gwangsu - Writer and poet * T.K. Seung - Philosopher and literary critic

References

External links

*
City profile of Jongju
{{North Pyongan Cities in North Pyongan