Kimjongsuk County is a ''kun'', or county, in

Ryanggang Ryanggang Province (Ryanggangdo; , ) is a province in North Korea. The province is bordered by China (Jilin) to the north, North Hamgyong to the east, South Hamgyong to the south, and Chagang to the west. Ryanggang was formed in 1954, when it w ...

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 ...

, along the

Yalu River The Yalu River () or Amnok River () is a river on the border between China and North Korea. Together with the Tumen River to its east, and a small portion of Paektu Mountain, the Yalu forms the border between China and North Korea. Its valle ...

. The Sinpa Revolutionary Site there is associated with

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 revolutionary, anti-Japanese guerrilla, Communist activist, the first wi ...

's underground political activities there during the

anti-Japanese struggle The Korean independence movement was a series of diplomatic and militant efforts to liberate Korea from Japanese rule. The movement began around the late 19th or early 20th century, and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. As independence a ...

History

Originally part of Samsu, the county was made into a separate entity in 1952, using Samso myeon, Samsu myon, Chaso myon, and Insan ri of Hoin myon. The county was initially known as Sinpa, meaning "New Galpa", adding the new in the name to differentiate from the Old town of Galpa. The Old town name of Galpa meant the town had plenty of

Kudzu Kudzu (), also called Japanese arrowroot or Chinese arrowroot, is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing deciduous perennial vines native to much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands. It is invasive species, invasive in ...

vines, known as "Gal(葛)" in Hanja. Other theories suggest the name Singalpa is named after a person who made military contributions to the fight against foreign enemies. The county was renamed in 1981 after

, the mother of

Kim Jong Il Kim Jong Il (born Yuri Kim; 16 February 1941 or 1942 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second Supreme Leader (North Korean title), supreme leader of North Korea from Death and state funeral of Kim Il Sung, the de ...

Geography

Kimjŏngsuk lies in the northern portion of the

Kaema Plateau The Kaema Plateau is a highland in North Korea. It is surrounded by the Rangrim Mountains, the Macheollyeong Mountains and the Bujeollyeong Mountains. Elevation varies between 700 and 2,000 meters and is approximately 40,000 square kilometers. ...

, and slopes downward toward the north. The

Changjin River Changjin County is a mountainous county in South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. Geography Changjin lies on the Rangrim and Pujŏllyong ranges, and most of the county sits atop the Kaema Plateau. Due to this location, Changjin has a particu ...

flows through the county, which is traversed by the Puksubaek Mountains and Huisaekbong Mountains. The highest point is Huisaekbong itself, 2185 m. Some 92% of the county's area is forestland. The chief rivers are the Yalu and the Changjin. The climate varies, with extremely cold temperatures prevailing in the south, and 3-3.5 °C warmer temperatures along the Yalu in the north.

Administrative divisions

Kimjŏngsuk county is divided into 1 ''ŭp'' (town), 2 ''rodongjagu'' (workers' districts) and 22 ''ri'' (villages):

Economy

The chief local industry is logging; there is little agriculture, except for some rice cultivation along the Yalu. A certain amount of wheat, maize, soybeans, and potatoes are also produced. There are local deposits of molybdenum, gold, copper, silver, lead, zinc and

tungsten Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...

Honeybees A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the cur ...

and other livestock are also raised. Hydropower is abundant.

Food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...

dominates local manufacturing.

Transportation

The county is served by both road and rail, with the

Pukbunaeryuk Line The Pukbunaeryuk Line, also called the Hyesan–Manp'o Ch'ŏngnyŏn Line after the only completed stage of three planned stages, is an electrified standard-gauge secondary trunk line of the Korean State Railway in Chagang and Ryanggang Provinc ...

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 ...

passing through the county.

References

External links

* {{coord, 41, 24, 28.8, N, 127, 45, 54, E, region:KP_source:enwiki-uniquenames, display=title Counties of Ryanggang