Huichon

Huichon 희천시
Municipal City
Korean transcription(s)
• Hanja	熙川市
• McCune-Reischauer	Hŭich'ŏn si
• Revised Romanization	Huicheon-si
Huichon Telecommunications University
Country	North Korea
Province	Chagang Province
Population (1987)
• Total	163,000

Hŭich'ŏn (Korean pronunciation: [hɰi.tsʰʌn]) is a city in the southern part of Chagang Province, North Korea. The population is 163,000 (1987 data).

Hŭich'ŏn was formerly a small village, since the Korean War and an influx of government investment, it has become a base for electronics and machinery production for DPRK.

Hŭich'ŏn is divided into 21 tong (neighbourhoods) and 12 ri (villages):

Hŭich'ŏn is served by an express highway to Pyongyang and by the Manpo Line railway.

The major industries are automotive and machinery manufacturing, including the Huichon Machine Tool Factory, Huichon Silk Mill and Huichon Hard Glassware Factory.

Because of its strategic inland location, Hŭich'ŏn is also a site for ordnance manufacturing.

The Korea General Machinery Trading Corporation operates the Huichon Machine Tool Factory, North Korea's government-run manufacturer of heavy-duty machine tools for domestic use and for export (although most exports are blocked by UN embargoes).

The factory group was founded in 1955 and is involved in machine tool production processes including steel-making, casting, processing, assembly, painting and packing. Products are produced on a serial basis and a small lot basis; its output of precision machine tools includes an assortment of spline-grinding machines and industrial lathes.

The creation of the complex was firstly discussed in a March 1951 Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee meeting. Kim Il Sung said "In the course of the war, I have learned a bloody lesson that we should produce our own munitions and weapons. I keenly feel that we must have a solid machine-building industry in a far-sighted way." Two locations were cited for this purpose: Tokchon and Huichon.

Once built, the factory became a model for the machine-building industry of the country. Machine factories have been built in Taean, Ragwon, Tokchon, Ryongsong, Kusong and other parts of the country were built on the Hŭich'ŏn model. According to questionable DPRK government figures, (as of 1998) machine-building industry in North Korea had increased 1690 times compared with the pre-liberation figure, and its self-sufficiency in machinery was already 98 per cent.