1. Restrictions on freedom of movement

2. Roads

3. Public transport

4. Railways

5. Water transport
    Merchant marine 

6. Ferry Service

7. Air transport

8. Vehicle markings

9. See also

10. References

11. Further reading

12. External links

Transport in North Korea is constrained by economic problems and government restrictions. Public transport predominates, and most of it is electrified.

Restrictions on freedom of movement

Roads

Fuel constraints and the near absence of private automobiles have relegated road transportation to a secondary role.^[8] The road network was estimated to be around {{convert|31,200|km}} in 1999, up from between {{convert|23,000|km}} and {{convert|30,000|km}} in 1990, of which only {{convert|1,717|km}}, 7.5%, are paved.{{citation needed|date=July 2013}} However, The World Factbook (published by the US Central Intelligence Agency) lists {{convert|25,554|km}} of roads with only {{convert|724|km}} paved as of 2006.^[8] As for the road quality, drivers will often swerve and change lanes to evade potholes, and this includes going into opposite-direction lanes at times. Likewise, sections under repair may not be properly signalled, so oncoming traffic should always be expected even on a divided motorway.

There are three major multilane highways: a {{convert|200|km|adj=on}} expressway connecting Pyongyang and Wonsan on the east coast, a {{convert|43|km|adj=on}} expressway connecting Pyongyang and its port, Nampo, and a four-lane {{convert|100|km|adj=on}} motorway linking Pyongyang and Kaesong. The overwhelming majority of the estimated 264,000 vehicles in use in 1990 were for the military. Rural bus service connects all villages, and cities have bus and tram services.^[8] Since 1945/1946, there is right-hand traffic on roads.{{citation needed|date=July 2013}} In cities, driving speeds are set by which lane a driver is in.^[9] The speed limits are {{convert|40|km/h}}, {{convert|60|km/h}}, and {{convert|70|km/h}} for the first, second, and subsequent (if existing) lanes from the right, respectively. A white-on-blue sign informs about this.^[9] The leftmost lane, if it is number 3 from the right or higher and is not a turning lane, is often left vacant, even by tourist buses, while the second-from-right lane is generally used to overtake vehicles from lane one, such as public transport buses and trams.

Besides the blue in-city sign, all other occasions, such as motorways and roads outside cities, use the more widely known red-circle-with-number-inside sign to post speed limits. On motorways, the typical limit is {{convert|80|km/h}} and {{convert|100|km/h}} for lanes from the right, respectively, as posted on the Pyongyang-Kaesong highway, for example. The rightmost lane of a motorway is sometimes, as seen on the Pyongyang–Myohyang highway, limited to {{convert|60|km/h}} near on-ramp joining points.

Automobile transportation is further restricted by a series of regulations. According to North Korean exile Kim Ji-ho, unless a driver receives a special permit it is forbidden to drive alone (the driver must carry passengers).^[13] Other permits are a military mobilization permit (to transport soldiers in times of war), a certificate of driver training (to be renewed every year), a fuel validity document (a certificate confirming that the fuel was purchased from an authorized source), and a mechanical certificate (to prove that the car is in working order).^[10]

Although it drives on the right, North Korea has imported various used right-hand drive RHD vehicles from Japan (through Russia), from tourist buses to Toyota Land Cruisers and HiAces.{{cn|date=January 2017}}

As of 2017, electric bicycles are becoming popular in Pyongyang; about 5% of bicycles are electric. Both locally and Chinese electric bicycles were available.^[11]

As of 2016 there is {{convert|26,176|km}} of road which is 25% of South Korea's road system in length.^[12]

Public transport

There is a mix of locally built and imported trolleybuses and trams in the major urban centres of North Korea. Earlier fleets were obtained from Europe and China.

Railways

The Korean State Railway is the only rail operator in North Korea. It has a network of over {{convert|6000|km}} of standard gauge and {{convert|400|km}} of narrow gauge ({{cvt|762|mm|disp=or}}) lines; as of 2007, over {{convert|5400|km}} of the standard gauge (well over 80%), along with {{convert|295.5|km}} of the narrow gauge lines are electrified.^[13] The narrow gauge segment runs in the Haeju peninsula.^[14]

Because of lack of maintenance on the rail infrastructure and vehicles, the travel time by rail is increasing. It has been reported that the {{convert|120|mi|adj=on|order=flip}} trip from Pyongyang to Kaesong can take up to six hours.^[15]

Water transport

Water transport on the major rivers and along the coasts plays a growing role in freight and passenger traffic. Except for the Yalu and Taedong rivers, most of the inland waterways, totaling {{convert|2,250|km}}, are navigable only by small boats. Coastal traffic is heaviest on the eastern seaboard, whose deeper waters can accommodate larger vessels. The major ports are Nampho on the west coast and Rajin, Chongjin, Wonsan, and Hamhung on the east coast. The country's harbor loading capacity in the 1990s was estimated at almost 35 million tons a year. 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.^[8]

Merchant marine

In the early 1990s, North Korea possessed an oceangoing merchant fleet, largely domestically produced, of 68 ships (of at least 1,000 gross-registered tons), totalling 465,801 gross-registered tons ({{DWT|709,442|metric|disp=long}}), which included 58 cargo ships and two tankers.^[8] As of 2008, this has increased to a total of 167 vessels consisting mainly of cargo and tanker ships.

Ferry Service

North Korea maintains the Man Gyong Bong 92, a ferry connecting Rajin and Vladivostok, Russia.^[16]

Air transport

North Korea's international air connections are limited in frequency and numbers.^[17] As of 2011, scheduled flights operate only from Pyongyang's Pyongyang Sunan International Airport to Beijing, Dalian, Shenyang, Shanghai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Moscow, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, and Kuwait International Airport. Charters to other destinations operate as per demand. Prior to 1995 many routes to Eastern Europe were operated including services to Sofia, Belgrade, Prague, and Budapest, along with others.

Internal flights are available between Pyongyang, Hamhung, Haeju (HAE), Hungnam (HGM), Kaesong (KSN), Kanggye, Kilju, Najin (NJN), Nampo (NAM), Sinuiju (SII), Samjiyon, Wonsan (WON), Songjin (SON), and Chongjin (CHO). All civil aircraft are operated by Air Koryo, which has a fleet of 19 passenger and cargo aircraft, all of which are Soviet or more modern Russian types.

As of 2013, the CIA estimates that North Korea has 82 usable airports, 39 of which have permanent-surface runways.^[19]

It was reported that North Korean air traffic controllers had been cut off from the international global satellite communications network in 2017 because North Korea had not made the required payments. Traffic controllers at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport had to use conventional telephone lines to inform their counterparts at Incheon International airport that the flight by a North Korean delegates to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea had taken off.^[20]

Vehicle markings

Road vehicles in North Korea bear distance stars. These are paint markings which display how far the particular vehicle has traveled without incident. Each star represents {{convert|50000|km|||}} travelled without an accident.^[21][22] The bus in this example has three stars, indicating that it has traveled over {{convert|150000|km|||}} without a crash.

See also

• Tourism in North Korea

References

Further reading

• Download a map of the entire North Korean Railway system to Google Earth here.
• Ducruet, Cesar et Jo, Jin-Cheol (2008) Coastal Cities, Port Activities and Logistic Constraints in a Socialist Developing Country: The Case of North Korea, Transport Reviews, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 1–25: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/462288788-26821155/content~content=a782923580~db=all~tab=content~order=page
• Jo, Jin-Cheol et Ducruet, Cesar (2007) Rajin-Seonbong, new gateway of Northeast Asia, Annals of Regional Science, Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 927–950: http://www.springerlink.com/content/625g177v07722201
• Jo, Jin-Cheol et Ducruet, Cesar (2006) Maritime trade and port evolution in a socialist developing country : Nampo, gateway of North Korea, The Korea Spatial Planning Review, Vol. 51, pp. 3–24: https://web.archive.org/web/20110722141923/http://library.krihs.re.kr/file/publication/att_file/publication2/PR51_01.pdf
• DUCRUET, Cesar, JO, Jin-Cheol, LEE, Sung-Woo, ROUSSIN, Stanislas, 2008, Geopolitics of shipping networks: the case of North Korea's maritime connections, Sustainability in International Shipping, Port and Logistics Industries and the China Factor, International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), Dalian, China, April 2–4.
• DUCRUET, Cesar, ROUSSIN, Stanislas, 2007, The changing relations between hinterland and foreland at North Korean ports (1985–2006), 6th Inha & Le Havre International Conference, Inha University, Incheon, Republic of Korea, October 10–11.
• DUCRUET, Cesar, ROUSSIN, Stanislas, 2007, Inter-Korean maritime linkages: economic integration vs. hub dependence, 15th European Conference on Theoretical and Quantitative Geography, Montreux, Switzerland, September 7–11, pp. 133–139 {{ISBN|978-2-940368-05-1}}.
• ROUSSIN, Stanislas, DUCRUET, Cesar, 2007, The Nampo-Pyongyang corridor: a strategic area for European investment in DPRK, Recent Changes in North Korea and the Role of the European Union, Institute of Unification Studies & Hans Seidel Foundation, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, June 1.
• ROUSSIN, Stanislas, DUCRUET, Cesar, 2007, Doing business in DPRK for the European companies: the logistic issue, Seogang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, May 26.
• ROUSSIN, Stanislas, DUCRUET, Cesar, 2006, Logistic perspectives in DPRK, Annual Fall Meeting of the Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers, Seoul, Republic of Korea, September 15–16.
• Ducruet, Cesar et Roussin, Stanislas (2007) Coree du Nord : vers l'ouverture des ports maritimes, Journal de la Marine Marchande, No. 4566, Juin 22, pp. 6–9.
• Ducruet, Cesar et Roussin, Stanislas (2007) L'archipel nord-coreen : transition economique et blocages territoriaux, Mappemonde, Vol. 87, http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num15/articles/art07302.html

External links

• Air Koryo official website
• Pyongyang metro unofficial website
• {{youtube|_U-kO7dAoO8|Drive through central Pyongyang at rush hour on National Day Holiday}}
• {{DMOZ|Regional/Asia/North_Korea/Transportation}}

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