For more than two thousand years, the flat plain where the Taedong River bends toward the Yellow Sea has kept producing capitals. Today it holds Pyongyang, the capital and largest city of North Korea, which had 3,255,288 people at the 2008 census. The city lies in the west-central part of the country, about 109 kilometres upstream from the river’s mouth, and is administered directly by the state with the same status as a province. Its name means “flat land”. What defines it now is that it was flattened in the Korean War and rebuilt from scratch as a planned showpiece of monuments, boulevards and apartment towers, with entry restricted so that it stays uncrowded. Its story runs through at least eight distinct eras.
Wanggeom-seong and the Lelang Commandery, to AD 313
North Korean histories tie Pyongyang to Asadal, the legendary first capital of Gojoseon founded by the mythical King Tan’gun, and give a founding date of 1122 BC. Most historians reject that link, since the earliest Chinese sources describe a much later Joseon. What is better documented is that a city called Wanggeom-seong, on the site of modern Pyongyang, served as Gojoseon’s capital from 194 to 108 BC. Settlement is far older still: in 1955 archaeologists excavated a large prehistoric village at Kŭmtan-ni in the Pyongyang area, dating to the Jeulmun and Mumun pottery periods.
In 108 BC the armies of Emperor Wu of Han conquered Gojoseon. China set up four commanderies, and the central one, Lelang, had its seat at Pyongyang. For roughly four centuries the city was a Chinese administrative and trading outpost, and it remained a commercial and cultural centre under the name Nanglang even after the expanding Korean kingdom of Goguryeo destroyed the commandery in 313.
Goguryeo’s Capital on the Taedong, 427–668
Goguryeo moved its capital to Pyongyang in 427, making the city the seat of one of the strongest of Korea’s Three Kingdoms, whose territory reached deep into Manchuria. The kingdom’s rulers were buried in painted tombs across the region. Thirty of them, spread between Pyongyang and the nearby port city of Nampo, became North Korea’s first UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2004 as the Complex of Koguryo Tombs. Together with the tombs across the border in China, they are almost all that survives of Goguryeo culture. The city’s defences also date from this period: Taedongmun, the eastern gate of the inner walled city, was first built in the sixth century as a Goguryeo work.
Goguryeo fell in 668, and Pyongyang briefly became the seat of the Tang dynasty’s Protectorate General to Pacify the East. By 676 the Korean kingdom of Silla had taken it, but the city ended up on a frontier between Silla and Balhae and lay largely abandoned for much of the Later Silla period.
The Western Capital of Goryeo and Joseon, 918–1890s
Revival came under Wang Geon, founder of the Goryeo dynasty, who recovered the site and made it Goryeo’s Western Capital, second in rank to the royal seat at Kaesong. When the Joseon dynasty formed Pyongan Province in the northwest in 1413, Pyongyang became its provincial capital, and the province took half its name from the city. Its kitchen belongs to that regional tradition too. The best-known local dish, Pyongyang raengmyŏn, is thin buckwheat noodles in a cold meat broth with watery kimchi and a slice of Korean pear, originally eaten in winter in rooms warmed by ondol underfloor heating. Visitors were traditionally served a soup of grey mullet from the Taedong, and people returning from the city were greeted with the question of how good the soup had been.
It was repeatedly fought over. During the Imjin War of the 1590s Japanese forces seized the city and held its walls until they were beaten at the Siege of Pyongyang. The Taedong Gate was burned in those wars, and the two-storey pavilion on a granite base that stands today dates from its rebuilding in 1635. In the 17th century the city was occupied again, briefly, during the Qing invasions. In 1866 an American merchant ship, the General Sherman, sailed up the Taedong trying to force open trade with an isolationist Korea; after its crew ignored orders to leave, the ship was destroyed in the river.
The “Jerusalem of the East”, 1890–1910
At the end of the 19th century Pyongyang was a city of about 40,000 people, and it was about to change character. In 1894, during the First Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Pyongyang wrecked and emptied much of the city. Two years later, in 1896, it became the capital of South Pyongan Province.
At the same time Protestant missionaries were making Pyongyang their main base in Korea. The city became a stronghold of Korean Christianity, above all after the Pyongyang Revival of 1907, and missionaries began calling it the “Jerusalem of the East”. That legacy survived into the nationalist politics of the next decades: when Soviet troops arrived in 1945, the local People’s Committee was led by a Christian nationalist, Cho Man-sik.
Heijō Under Japanese Rule, 1910–1945
Under Japanese colonial rule the city was known as Heijō, a Japanese reading of the same Chinese characters. Japan tried to develop it as an industrial centre, but it also became a centre of resistance, from the March First Movement of 1919 to strong socialist and anti-Japanese movements in the 1920s, driven by economic exploitation. In July 1931 the city saw anti-Chinese riots after sensational press reports of the Wanpaoshan Incident in Manchuria. The population kept rising regardless, reaching about 235,000 by 1938.
Soviet Arrival and the Korean War, 1945–1953
On 25 August 1945 the Soviet 25th Army entered Pyongyang, and the city became the seat of the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea. When the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was proclaimed in 1948, Pyongyang became its capital in practice, although its government still regarded Seoul as Korea’s official capital and aimed to recapture it.
The Korean War wrecked the city for the second time in six decades. South Korean forces held Pyongyang from 19 October to 6 December 1950, and many residents fled south as Chinese armies advanced. In 1952 it was the target of the largest air raid of the entire war, involving 1,400 UN aircraft. Planning for the new city started before the fighting ended: the Moscow Architectural Institute drew up a reconstruction plan in 1951, and on 27 July 1953, the day the armistice was signed, an exhibition of the master plan was on show in the Moranbong Underground Theatre, the government’s air-raid shelter beneath Moran Hill.
Kim Il Sung’s Monumental City, 1953–1994
The architect Kim Jung-hee, appointed by Kim Il Sung, designed a master plan for a city of one million people stretching between the Taedong and Pothong rivers. Its heart was an administrative centre of wide avenues and monuments, with Kim Il Sung Square as kilometre zero. Rebuilding with Soviet help produced Stalinist public buildings with Korean detailing; after a 1956 trip to the Soviet Union, Kim Il Sung pushed mass-housing blocks modelled on Soviet prototypes south of the Taedong. Residents were organised into neighbourhood units, or dong, of 5,000 to 6,000 people, each with its own food store, clinic, bathhouse and library, and entry to the city was tightly controlled to cap its size. The 1972 Constitution made Pyongyang the official capital.
The 1960s to 1980s brought the monuments that define the skyline. Construction of the Pyongyang Metro began in 1965, with stations opening between 1969 and 1972 and the grandest two, Puhŭng and Yŏnggwang, completed in 1987. In 1982, the year of Kim Il Sung’s 70th birthday, the city completed the 170-metre granite Juche Tower, containing 25,550 blocks, and the 60-metre Arch of Triumph, which is larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Work began in 1987 on the 330-metre, pyramid-shaped Ryugyong Hotel, meant to open for his 80th birthday in 1992; it stopped that year as the economy collapsed after the Soviet Union’s fall. Kim Il Sung died in 1994, and his body now lies in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, his former residence, alongside that of Kim Jong Il.
Famine, Revival and the 50,000 Flats, 1994–2026
The 1990s famine and economic crisis slowed building sharply, as resources were diverted to the army. Recovery began with a modernisation programme in 2001. Work on the Ryugyong Hotel resumed in 2008 and its exterior was finished in 2011, though the building has never opened. Under Kim Jong Un the pace became frantic: Changjon Street with 2,784 flats in 2012, the Unha and Wisong scientists’ streets in 2013 and 2014, and Ryomyong Street with 4,804 flats in 2017.
In 2021 the Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea set a five-year target of 50,000 new flats, 10,000 a year. The first phase, Songhwa Street in the city’s east, included an 80-storey tower; later phases filled the Hwasong area in the northwest with new streets such as Rimhung Street in 2024. The inauguration of Saebyol Street in February 2026 completed the programme, with state media reporting nearly 60,000 flats in total, and a fifth Hwasong phase broke ground immediately afterwards. The city that emerged is still defined by who may live there: an estimated 99 percent of residents are members, candidates or dependants of members of the ruling party. For how the capital fits into the rest of the country, see the largest cities in North Korea and this guide to North Korea’s geography, or follow the motorway south from Pyongyang to the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
Quick Facts About Pyongyang
- Country: North Korea
- Continent: Asia (East Asia)
- Country population: approximately 26.6 million
- Capital city status: Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea, the seat of national government, and the location of foreign embassies, parliament, and the head of state's official residence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the capital of North Korea?
The capital of North Korea is Pyongyang. Pyongyang is the seat of national government, hosts most foreign embassies and consulates, and is typically where the head of state and parliament are located.
What continent is Pyongyang in?
Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, is located in Asia, in the East Asia region. As North Korea's capital, Pyongyang serves as the country's primary connection to the broader Asian political, economic, and cultural sphere.
Why is Pyongyang the capital of North Korea?
Pyongyang was chosen as the capital of North Korea for reasons that typically combine geography, history, and politics. Capital city selections often reflect a desire for centrality (being accessible from across the country), historical importance (being a longstanding seat of government or culture), or neutrality (being acceptable to multiple regions or ethnic groups within the country). The specific reasons for Pyongyang's designation are detailed in the city's history above.
What is Pyongyang known for?
As the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang is best known for housing the country's central government institutions — parliament, presidential or royal residences, supreme court, and key ministries. It is also typically a major cultural and economic center within North Korea, hosting national museums, embassies, and signature monuments. The introduction and history sections above provide detailed coverage of the city's specific notable institutions and landmarks.
Related Pages
- North Korea Country Guide — full geography, climate, economy, and culture overview
- Flag of North Korea — meaning, history, and design of North Korea's national flag