Hamhung, the second-largest North Korean city: Dynasty urbanism, colonial urbanism and socialist urbanism

Abstract

In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or North Korea), after Pyongyang, Hamhung is the second-largest city, with a population of 769,000. It has shown a unique development trajectory starting from an important regional military and administrative town. Pre- and during the Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), the changes in the structure and function of Hamhung were wide-ranging. After independence from Japan and the division between North and South Korea, the Korean War (1950–1953) broke out, leaving Hamhung in utter ruins. Then, the immediate reaction after the Korean War was to reconstruct the city which was carried out with aid from socialist fraternal countries, notably East Germany. Socialist urban development patterns followed. The purpose of this paper is to provide a historic review of Hamhung depicting these critical junctures with a periodisation of Hamhung's development – the Joseon Dynasty urbanism (1392–1910), colonial urbanism (1910–1945), and socialist urbanism (1945 - currently). However, through these multiple ‘mille-feuille’-like urban layers, spatial lock-in effects have been observed.