Tŏkch'ŏn () is a
''si'', or city, in northern
South 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 ...
. It is bordered by
Nyŏngwŏn and
Maengsan to the east,
Kujang county in
North P'yŏngan province to the north,
Kaech'ŏn to the west and
Pukch'ang to the south. It was known as Tokugawa during Japanese rule.
History
A 1984 survey unearthed fragmented pieces of pottery about 3km north from the Tokchon city limits dating from the Juelmun pottery period. However, little is known about the founding of the current city of Tokchon. The earliest records of Tokchon point to a Goryeo period founding of around with scriptures mentioning a fort named Bajung (바중) owned by a local lord c.950 A.D. The city was only named the current Tokchon during the Choson period (1392-1897). The city was heavily bombed by the USAF in the Korean War, with estimates of 65% of the city destroyed and 15-25,000 killed. On April 28, 2017, a
Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile
An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range between (), categorized between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ball ...
launched from near
Pukchang Airport reportedly crashed into Ch'ŏngsin-dong, Tokchon, damaging several structures in the city.
Administrative divisions
Tŏkch'ŏn-si is divided into 22 ''tong'' (neighbourhoods) and 10 ''ri'' (villages):
Economy
The
Sŭngri Motor Plant (with associated workshops) has been one of the few domestic sources of both low-cost replicas of foreign passenger cars and military-service trucks in North Korea since it was established in 1950, and developed through the massive militarization campaigns of
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 ...
in the 1970s and 80s.
However, the total depletion of foreign credit by the end of the 1980s caused the manufacturing industry to implode; the supply of steel for metalworking at Sŭngri slowed to a trickle, and even when available, the production lines had regular power outages.
The severe famine in the countryside also caused an exodus of starving peasants to the cities, further straining food supplies and worker productivity. 20,000 cars and trucks were made in Tŏkch'ŏn in 1980; by 1996 the number was just 150, all of which were Army trucks, some later modified as
rocket artillery
Rocket artillery is artillery that uses rockets as the projectile. The use of rocket artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used (albeit mostly as a psychological weapon). Fire arrows were also used in mult ...
launchers.
Transportation
Tŏkch'ŏn-si is served by the
Korean State Railway's
P'yŏngdŏk line and five branchlines.
See also
*
List of secondary subdivisions of North Korea
*
Geography of North Korea
North Korea is located in East Asia in the Northern half of Korea, partially on the Korean Peninsula. It borders three countries: People's Republic of China, China along the Amnok River, Yalu (Amnok) River, Russia along the Tumen River, and Sou ...
*
South Pyongan
Further reading
*Dormels, Rainer. North Korea's Cities: Industrial facilities, internal structures and typification. Jimoondang, 2014.
References
External links
*
City profile of Tokchon
Cities in South Pyongan
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