Supung Lake(수풍저수지) is an artificial reservoir on the border between

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 ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The lake has been created by a damming of 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 ...

by the

Sup'ung Dam The Sup'ung Dam (), also referred to as the Shuifeng Dam and originally the Suihō Dam, is a gravity dam on the Yalu River between Kuandian Manchu Autonomous County, Liaoning Province in China and Sakju, Sakju County, North Pyongan, North Pyongan ...

, located just upstream from

Sinuiju Sinŭiju (; ) is a city in North Korea which faces Dandong, Liaoning, China, across the international border of the Yalu River. It is the capital of North Pyongan Province, North P'yŏngan province. Part of the city is included in the Sinuiju Spe ...

, North Korea.

History

The

was built between 1937 and 1943 by the Japanese forces during the

Japanese invasion of Manchuria The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded the Manchuria region of the Republic of China on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden incident, a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext to invade. At the ...

. When it was built, the dam was on China's land, and the power station on North Korea's land. It had the capacity to power all of Korea and Manchuria in electricity. On 19 December 1972, North Korea and China signed a protocol for the Joint Protection/Proliferation and Use of Fishery Resources (8 articles) regarding the management of the Supung Lake. Another protocol was previously signed in 1959 regarding the use of fishery in the lake, but only regional representatives had written and signed this protocol.

Changsung Chalet

The Korean-style tiled-roof Changsung Chalet on the shore of the lake is the property of the

Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung (born Kim Song Ju; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he led as its first Supreme Leader (North Korean title), supreme leader from North Korea#Founding, its establishm ...

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 ...

dynasty. There is supposedly a tunnel directly connecting the chalet and inland China.

In literature

The South-Korean writer

Ko Un Ko Un (; born 1 August 1933) is a South Korean poet whose works have been translated and published in more than fifteen countries. He had been imprisoned many times due to his role in the campaign for Korean democracy and was later mentioned in ...

wrote a poem about a man who chip away the Supung Dam for decades to " resuscitate the old (Yalu) river". The dam eventually breaks and the water is drained out of the lake, revealing the ancient tombs of the

Koguryo Goguryeo (37 BC – 668 AD) (; ; Old Korean: Guryeo) also later known as Goryeo (; ; Middle Korean: 고ᇢ롕〮, ''kwòwlyéy''), was a Korean kingdom which was located on the northern and central parts of the Korea, Korean Peninsula an ...

and Palhae periods.Karen Thornber
Ecoambiguity: Environmental Crises and East Asian Literatures
''University of Michigan Press'', 2012 (accessed on 9 October 2019)

Sources

Reservoirs in North Korea International lakes of Asia China–North Korea border Reservoirs in China Tunnels in North Korea Tunnels in China {{NorthKorea-geo-stub