Transportation in North Korea
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The standard route to and from North Korea is by plane through Beijing, People's Republic of China. Transport directly to and from South Korea has been possible on a limited scale from 2003, when a road was opened (bus tours, no private cars).
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[edit] Roads
Fuel constraints and the near absence of private automobiles have relegated road transportation to a secondary role. The road network was estimated between 23,000 and 30,000 kilometers in 1990, of which only 1,717 kilometers--7.5 percent--are paved; the rest are of dirt, crushed stone, or gravel, and are poorly maintained (see fig. 8). There are three major multilane highways: a 200-kilometer expressway connecting P'yongyang and Wonsan on the east coast, a forty-three-kilometer expressway connecting P'yongyang and its port, Namp'o, and a four-lane 100- kilometer highway linking P'yongyang and Kaesong. The overwhelming majority of the estimated 264,000 vehicles in use in 1990 were for the military. Rural bus service connects all villages, and cities have bus and tram services. In 1973 an extravagantly outfitted, two-line 30.5-kilometer subway system was completed in P'yongyang.
[edit] Railways
Railroads, the main means of transportation, had a total route length of 5,045 kilometers in 1990. In 1990 railroads hauled 90 percent of all freight, with 7 percent carried on roads and 3 percent of transport hauled by water. The comparative figures for passenger traffic were 62 percent, 37 percent, and 1 percent, respectively. By 1990 approximately 63 percent of the rail network was electrified, an important factor in improving traction capacity in mountainous terrain. Two major lines run north-south, one each along the east and west coasts. Two eastwest lines connect Pyongyang and Wonsan by a central and a southerly route, and a part of a third link line constructed in the 1980s connects provinces in the mountainous far north near the Chinese border (see fig. 7). The railroad system is linked with those of China and Russia, although gauge inconsistencies necessitated some dual gauging with Russia. The Third Seven-Year Plan targeted an increase of 60 percent for railroad traffic through continued efforts in electrification, development of centralized and containerized transport, and modernization of transport management.
total: 5,214 km
standard gauge: 5,214 km 1.435 m gauge (3,500 km electrified) (2003)
- Bulk carrier/passenger transport: Railways of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Choson Cul Minzuzui Inmingonghoagug)
- City with metro system:
[edit] Rail links with adjacent countries
- China - yes - same gauge 1435mm (4' 8½")
- Russia - no - break-of-gauge - link proposed in March 2006.
- South Korea - constructed, not yet in service (remains to be tested) - same gauge 1435mm (4' 8½")
[edit] Highways
total: 31,200 km
paved: 1,997 km
unpaved: 29,203 km (1999 est.)
[edit] Waterways
Water transport on the major rivers and along the coasts plays only a minor, but probably growing, role in freight and passenger traffic. Except for the Yalu and Taedong rivers, most of the inland waterways, totaling 2,253 kilometers, are navigable only by small craft. Coastal traffic is heaviest on the eastern seaboard, whose deeper waters can accommodate larger vessels. The major ports are Namp'o on the west coast and Najin, Ch'ngjin, Wnsan, and Hamh ng on the east coast. The country's harbor loading capacity in the 1990s was estimated at almost 35 million tons a year. In the early 1990s, North Korea possessed an oceangoing merchant fleet, largely domestically produced, of sixtyeight ships (of at least 1,000 gross-registered tons), totaling 465,801 gross-registered tons (709,442 deadweight tons), which includes fifty-eight cargo ships and two tankers. There is a continuing investment in upgrading and expanding port facilities, developing transportation--particularly on the Taedong River--and increasing the share of international cargo by domestic vessels.
2,253 km; mostly navigable by small craft only
[edit] Pipelines
Oil - 136 km
[edit] Ports and harbors
[edit] East Coast
Chongjin, Hungnam (Hamhung), Kosong, Kimchaek, Rajin, Sonbong, Wonsan
[edit] West Coast
Haeju, Sinuiju, Sonbong (formerly Unggi), Nampo
[edit] Unsure
Ungsang
[edit] Merchant marine
total: 203 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 921,557 GRT/1,339,929 DWT
ships by type: bulk 6, cargo 166, combination bulk 2, container 3, liquefied gas 1, livestock carrier 3, multi-functional large load carrier 1, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 11, refrigerated cargo 6, roll on/roll off 2, short-sea/passenger 1
[edit] Airports
North Korea's international air connections are limited. There are regularly scheduled flights (about once or twice a week) from the international airport at Sunan--twenty-four kilometers north of P'yongyang--to Moscow, Khabarovsk, and Beijing, and irregular flights from Sunan to Tokyo as well as to East European countries, the Middle East, and Africa. Information on the frequency of the latter flights is not available. An agreement to initiate a service between P'yongyang and Tokyo was signed in 1990. Internal flights are limited to routes between P'yongyang, Hamhng, Wnsan, and Ch'ngjin. All civil aircraft, an estimated eighteen planes in 1991, were purchased from the Soviet Union. From 1976 to 1978, three Tu-154 jets were added to the small fleet of propeller-driven An-24s.
There are 78 airports in North Korea (2003 est.) including:
- P´yongyang Airport
- P´yongyang-Sunan Airport (FNJ/ZKPY) with 13,100 ft runway
[edit] Airports - with paved runways
total: 35
over 3,047 m: 3
2,438 to 3,047 m: 23
1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
914 to 1,523 m: 1
under 914 m: 3 (2003 est.)
[edit] Airports - with unpaved runways
total: 43
2,438 to 3,047 m: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 20
914 to 1,523 m: 14
under 914 m: 8 (2003 est.)
[edit] References
- This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
- Download a map of the entire North Korean Railway system to Google Earth here.
