Chongjin

Chongjin 청진
Municipal City
Korean transcription(s)
• Chŏsŏn'gŭl	청진시
• Hancha	淸津市
• McCune–Reischauer	Ch'ŏngjin-si
• Revised Romanization	Cheongjin-si
Downtown Chongjin in September 2011, as seen from the city's monument of Kim Il-sung.
Nickname(s): City of Iron
Chongjin
Coordinates: 41°47′N 129°46′E / 41.783°N 129.767°E / 41.783; 129.767Coordinates: 41°47′N 129°46′E / 41.783°N 129.767°E / 41.783; 129.767
Country	North Korea
Province	North Hamgyong
Area
• Total	269 km2 (104 sq mi)
Population (2008)
• Total	627,000
• Dialect	Hamgyong
Time zone	Pyongyang Time (UTC+08:30)

Chŏngjin (Korean pronunciation: [tsʰʌŋ.dʑin]; Chosŏn'gŭl: 청진시; MR: Ch'ŏngjin-si) is the capital of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province and the country's third largest city. It is sometimes called the City of Iron.

Chongjin was a small fishing village prior to the Japanese annexation of Korea; its date of establishment is unknown. The Chinese characters for its name mean 'clear river crossing'. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Japanese forces landed at Chongjin, and established a supply base due to its proximity to the front lines in Manchuria. The Japanese remained after the end of the war, and in 1908, declared the city an open trading port both for transport of Korean resources and as a stopping point for resources from China. The city was known during this period as “Seishin”, after the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters for its name. The Imperial Japanese Army’s 19th Division was headquartered in Ranam from 1918, where the Japanese built a new planned city based on a rectangular street grid. In the 1930, Nippon Steel built a large steel mill, the Seishin Iron and Steel Works, in the town. Ranam was annexed to Chongjin in 1940, which was elevated to city status. The city was overrun after a brief resistance by the Soviet Union on August 13, 1945, only a couple of days before the end of World War II. Under the rule of North Korea, Chongjin remained an important military and industrial center. It was directly administered by the central government from 1960-1967 and from 1977-1988.