Kowŏn County is a county in

South Hamgyŏng South Hamgyong Province (, ''Hamgyŏngnamdo''; ) is a province of North Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the southern half of the former Hamgyong Province, remained a province of Korea until 1945, then became a province of North Kor ...

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 ...

. It lies at the southern tip of the province.

Physical features

The highest point is Palbongsan. The western reaches of the county are high and mountainous, while the east is a low-lying plain. Major rivers and streams include the Chŏnt'an River (전탄강), Tŏkchi River (덕지강), Sabakch'ŏn (사박천), and the Kuryongch'ŏn (구룡천). 54% of the county's area is forested. The climate is generally continental, but is moderated by

foehn A Foehn, or Föhn (, , , ), is a type of dry, relatively warm downslope wind in the lee of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its moisture on windw ...

winds blowing from the mountains. This makes it one of the warmer parts of the province.

Administrative divisions

Kowŏn county is divided into 1 ''

ŭp An ''eup'' or ''ŭp'' () is an administrative unit in both North Korea and South Korea similar to the unit of town. In South Korea Along with " myeon", an "eup" is one of the divisions of a county ("gun"), and of some cities ("si") with a pop ...

'' (town), 1 ''

rodongjagu A Workers' District ( in North Korea, in South Korea) is a third-level administrative division of North Korea, meaning it lies below a city or county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. ...

'' (workers' district) and 18 '' ri'' (villages):

Economy

Agriculture

Agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

is the predominant local industry.

Orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

ing and

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

raising are also carried out, as is

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, the caterpillar of the Bombyx mori, domestic silkmoth is the most widely used and intensively studied silkwo ...

(silk farming).

Mining and manufacturing

There are deposits of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

in the county, and mining and construction-materials manufacturing also contribute to the local economy.

Transport

Kowŏn is connected to the rest of North Korea by rail and road. The P'yŏngra and Kangwŏn 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 ...

run through the county.

References

External links

* {{coord, 39.44049, 127.23848, type:adm3rd_globe:earth_region:KP, display=title Counties of South Hamgyong