Tokchon

Tokchon
덕천시
Municipal City
Korean transcription(s)
 • Chosŏn'gŭl 덕천시
 • Hancha 德川市
 • McCune-Reischauer Tŏkch'ŏn si
 • Revised Romanization Deokcheon-si
Coordinates: 39°45′0″N 126°20′0″E / 39.75000°N 126.33333°E
Country North Korea
Province South Pyongan Province
Administrative divisions 1 ŭp, 4 workers' districts, 13 ri
Population (2009)
 • Total 237,133

Tokchon is a si, or city, in northern South Pyongan province, North Korea. It is bordered by Yongwon and Maengsan to the east, Kujang to the north, Kaechon to the west and Pukchang to the south. It is home to the Sungri Motor Plant, established in 1950, and various other small factories.

The Sungri Motor Plant (and associated workshops) have been one of the few domestic sources of both low-cost replicas of foreign passenger cars and military-service trucks in North Korea; developed through the massive militarization campaigns of Kim-Il Sung in the 1970s and 80s.

However, the total depletion of foreign credit by the end of the 1980s caused the manufacturing industry to rapidly implode; the supply of steel for metalworking at Sungri slowed to a trickle, and even when available, the production lines suffered from regular power outages. The severe famine in the countryside had also caused a mass exodus of starving peasants to the cities, further straining food supplies and worker productivity. 20,000 cars and trucks were made in Tokchon in 1980, by 1996 the number was just 150, all of which were Army trucks, some later modified as rocket artillery launchers.[1]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ https://fas.org/nuke/guide/dprk/facility/tokchon.htm

External links

Coordinates: 39°45′40″N 126°18′43″E / 39.761°N 126.312°E