1939: colonial introduction Between the years 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled as a
Japanese colony. This fact forced the integration of Korea into the Japanese empire's economic and political spheres. Thus, after the
Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, Korea was integrated into the Japanese war effort. It was amid Japan's efforts towards creating a more scientific and technologically advanced country for the war when a team of researchers worked to fabricate Vinylon. The first successful creation of Vinylon was in 1939, by a
Kyoto University research team in Japan, using petroleum as the feedstock. However, Vinylon was later brought to North Korea by Ri Sung-gi, one of the researchers of the Kyoto University team, amid North Korean campaign aimed at the recruitment of scientists and engineers from
South Korea in the period following Korea's liberation from Japan in 1945. He was working as a professor at
Seoul National University at the time. Therefore, the North Korean economy heavily depended on aid from other socialist countries. However, in the 1960s, the aid from the Soviet Union decreased. North Korea was no longer receiving aid in the form of grants, but loans. The manufacturing of vinylon was therefore taken as a step towards developing North Korea as a modern industrial state. With such an appeal to nationalism, the North Korean government mobilized its citizens for constructing and supporting a new vinylon factory, called Vinylon City. In 1961, Vinylon City, the factory compound for producing vinylon, was built in the northeastern industrial city of
Hungnam. The construction of the factory (which has fifty buildings) took fourteen months. Vinylon City had a total floor space of , 15,000 production machines, 1,700 container tanks, and of piping. The factory is said to have hit a production ceiling in 1973. A second complex was planned in 1983 but never built.
1990s–2000s The North Korean economy suffered enormously after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, culminating in the
North Korean famine of 1994-1998. In 1994, the complex was forced to close due to coal shortages. After the North Korean economy recovered, the complex remained closed until 2010. During this time, the vinalon market was replaced by other fabrics, some made domestically, others imported from China. One defector said that only the army continued to purchase this material. Kim was accompanied by high-ranking officers of the party, such as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly
Kim Yong-nam, Defense Minister
Kim Yong-chun and Korean Workers’ Party secretaries
Kim Ki-nam and
Choi Tae-bok. While his attendance, and that of the most important party members, could signify the importance of the vinylon complex and its role in advancing the economic policies of Kim Jong Il, there is evidence that the facility could play a role in the North Korean nuclear weapons program. Based on an analysis of satellite imagery, information from
Ko Chong-song (a North Korean official who had defected), and a number of North Korean technical documents, there is speculation that the Hamhung plant is manufacturing
unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, a rocket fuel that is used in North Korean long-range missiles. In his new-year speech for 2017, Kim Jong Un expressed plans to revamp the Vinylon City. == Historical significance ==