Pyongyang

P'yŏngyang (IPA: /pʰjʌŋjaŋ/) is the capital city of the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea. The city is located on the Taedong River, at 39°02′N 125°45′E (39.0333, 125.75). The official population of the city is not disclosed; given as 2,741,260 in 1993, it was reported as 2.5 and 3.8 million in 2002 and 2003 by Choson Soren, a political organization of Koreans residing in Japan.

During the occupation by Imperial Japan, the occupational authority called the city Heijo. The city sustained several waves of bombing during the second World War and the Korean War. US and ROK coalition forces briefly occupied P'yŏngyang in the autumn of 1950 that included a Bob Hope show. Following the end of hostilities in 1953, P'yŏngyang had to be rebuilt, almost in its entirety. To their credit, the DPRK developed and constructed a lovely city combining vast open space and public park land with Stalinist efficiency architecture and classic Korea. Like many major Asian cities, personal residential space in P'yŏngyang is limited. Major construction and urban renovation has occurred either from or in 1953-1956, 1967, 1971-1972, 1974, 1980-1982, 1984, 1987-1989, 1992 and 1995.

The city was split from the South P'yŏngan province in 1946. It is administered as a Directly Governed City (Chikhalsi), on the same level as provincial governments, not a Special City (Teukbyeolsi) as Seoul is in South Korea. Some sources, mostly older and South Korean, refer to Pyŏngyang as a Special City, but it has been reported that even the South Korean government adopted the Directly Governed City terminology in 1994. The city is governed by a special branch of the Central Committee of the WPK/KWP as well as its own municipal governing body, the Pyŏngyang City Committee. There are 21 guyŏk (literally translated as wards but meaning districts or arrondisements) and 4 gun (counties).

It is being reported by the official press agencies of the DPRK, as well as media resources in the ROK, that sections of Pyongyang are undergoing reconstruction, including the addition of residential apartment complexes in Sunan, Ryongsong and Hyongjesan Districts, the renovation of cultural halls and cinemas, and the planting of trees and other flora in an effort of "greening" Pyongyang. This new renovation of Pyongyang is part of a nationwide effort at urban renewal throughout the DPRK in advance of the centenarian anniversary of the late DPRK President Kim il Sung in 2012.