'' (DAG) in 1958 The city was called either Hamju (as recorded in 1108, the third year of
King Yejeong) or Hamjumok (as recorded in 1369, 18th year of
King Gongmin). It received its current name of Hamhung in 1416, when it was promoted to a '
bu'. The
Sino-Korean word '흥' (
Hancha: 興), added to the original name of Hamju, means that the town would prosper.
Yi Seong-gye, founder of the
Yi dynasty, retired to the city after a successful palace coup by his son
Yi Bang-won in 1400. Though his son sent envoys to reconcile, his father had them killed. A modern Korean expression, 'King's envoy to Hamhŭng' (), refers to a person who goes on a journey and is never heard from again. It was known as
Kankō during
Japanese rule of Korea between 1910 and 1945. It was liberated by the
Red Army on 22 August 1945. The city was 80–90% destroyed by American air raids during the
Korean War (1950–1953) and was occupied by
ROK troops between 17 October 1950 and 17 December 1950. From 1955 to 1962, Hamhŭng was the object of a large-scale program of reconstruction and development by
East Germany including the build-up of construction-related industries and intense training measures for Korean construction workers, engineers, city planners and architects. When the
Bauhaus trained architect
Konrad Püschel, the first Head of City Planning for the reconstruction project arrived in 1955, he was accompanied by about 175 members of the
Deutsche Arbeitsgruppe (DAG) or
German Working Group Hamhung as the project team was called. The project ended two years earlier than scheduled and with a low profile because of the
Sino-Soviet conflict and the opposing positions that North Korea and East Germany took on that issue. From 1960 to 1967, Hamhŭng was administered separately from South Hamgyŏng as a
Directly Governed City (
Chikhalsi). Before 1960 and since 1967, the city has been part of South Hamgyŏng Province. In 1995, Hamhŭng witnessed, thus far, one of the only documented challenges to the North Korean
government when
famine-ravaged
soldiers began a march toward
Pyongyang. The revolt was quelled, and the unit of soldiers was disbanded. The
North Korean famine of the 1990s appears to have had a disproportionate effect on the people of Hamhung.
Andrew Natsios, a former aid worker, USAID administrator, and author of
The Great North Korean Famine, described Hamhung as "the city most devastated by [the] famine." Contemporary published reports from
The Washington Post and
Reuters describe numerous fresh graves on the surrounding hillsides and report that many of Hamhung's children were stunted by malnutrition. One survivor claimed that more than 10% of the city's population died, with another 10% fleeing the city in search of food. Despite previously being closed to foreigners, foreign nationals can now travel to Hamhung through the few approved North Korean tour operators. There is speculation that Hamhung, with its high proportion of chemists and the site of a chemical-industrial complex built by the Japanese during World War II, might be the center for
North Korea's methamphetamine production. ==Economy==