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North Korea Maritime Transportation
Water transport on the major rivers and along the coasts
plays only a minor, but probably growing, role in freight and
passenger traffic. Except for the Yalu and Taedong rivers, most
of the inland waterways, totaling 2,253 kilometers, are navigable
only by small craft. Coastal traffic is heaviest on the eastern
seaboard, whose deeper waters can accommodate larger vessels. The
major ports are Namp'o on the west coast and Najin, Ch'ngjin,
Wnsan, and Hamh ng on the east coast. The country's harbor
loading capacity in the 1990s was estimated at almost 35 million
tons a year. In the early 1990s, North Korea possessed an oceangoing merchant fleet, largely domestically produced, of sixtyeight ships (of at least 1,000 gross-registered tons), totaling
465,801 gross-registered tons (709,442 deadweight tons), which
includes fifty-eight cargo ships and two tankers. There is a
continuing investment in upgrading and expanding port facilities,
developing transportation--particularly on the Taedong River--and
increasing the share of international cargo by domestic vessels.
Data as of June 1993
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