Jo Feb 5, 2025
The Sea Kumgang Gate is about twenty kilometers away from Kosong County Town, Kangwon Province, DPRK.
There are plenty of fish, shellfish and seaweeds in this area. The hills, peaks and cliffs of different heights add beauty to the Sea Kumgang Gate.
Entering the gate, you can enjoy an endless variety of beautiful sceneries within a kilometer.
From long ago, the Korean people have called it Sea Kumgang Gate as it is the entrance to the Sea Kumgang.
On the right side is a large wide rock on which pine trees are growing thickly.
The sea water in the dimple inside the gate is blue and calm like a pool. However, once there is a wind over the sea, towering waves surge against the gate, which produces a crest rocketing into the sky like spouting white smoke.
The Sea Kumgang Gate is of great academic and scenic importance.
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Jo Feb 1, 2025
February has two seasonal divisions of the year, ripchun and usu.
Ripchun, the first of the 24 seasonal divisions, signifies the opening of spring according to the lunar calendar. It usually falls around February 4th of the solar calendar.
From long ago, the Korean people used to greet ripchun, the first division of spring, with peculiar customs.
On the day, they tidied up their houses and some of them expressed their pleasure of greeting the spring in the diaries. In addition, they cooked some dishes with spring onion grown in a storage pit, leaf mustard, etc. scented with spring fragrance.
What is special about the customs related to farming around ripchun is that there were many ceremonies associated with oxen.
Usu is a term indicating the time when the snow melts and the spring rain starts to fall. It usually falls around February 18-20 of the solar calendar.
Ushering in usu, all the areas except the highlands in the north of our country start to thaw out. The peasants kept snowmelt in all pools and made haste with farming preparations.
In this season, our people used to play yut, tug-of-war, seesaw, kite-flying and other colorful folk games.
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Jo Jan 13, 2025
Ocha Rock is on the south-west shore of Lagoon Monggum tens of kilometers away from the town of Ryongyon County, South Hwanghae Province, DPRK.
Jangsan Point is the extension of the Pultha mountain range, forming a peninsula. Jangsan Point was formed by the abrasion of quartzite.
The singular Ocha Rock was also formed by such phenomenon. On the shore are standing some cliffs as high as ten to thirty meters. Ocha Rock is twelve to fifteen meters tall and about ten meters round in its bottom.
Ocha Rock is made up of regular layers.
This rare rock formed by abrasion and weathering is of great academic significance and also of great rarity on the coast of the Korean West Sea.
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Jo Jan 8, 2025
More than ten old Kwangmyong Zelkova trees are growing by Jogye Gate of the Sogwang Temple about twenty kilometers north of the seat of Kosan County, Kangwon Province, DPRK.
These trees are said to have been planted in 1386, when the Sogwang Temple was being built.
The largest one is 27 meters tall, with the root collar of 9.8 meters round, the chest-height of 8 meters round and the canopy of 25 meters in diameter. The smallest one is 12 meters tall, with the root collar of 2.4 meters round, the chest-height of 2.3 meters round and the canopy of 8 meters in diameter.
These large old trees are designated as a living monument and in good preservation and care as they are of academic and educational significance and add beauty to the Sogwang Temple.
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Jo Jan 4, 2025
Among the rare and beautiful natural monuments of our country is the Isonnam Falls.
It is in the Chonthae Valley of Mt. Myohyang, a superb scenic beauty.
It was called fraternal falls as the waters had been falling in parallel with each other like good brothers for a long time.
In May, 1981, Chairman
Since then, it has been called “Isonnam Falls”.
The falls are 22 meters in height, and 6 to 10 meters and 4 to 8 meters in width, respectively.
The waters fall along the inclined rock, at the protrusion of which they spout forward.
At the bottom is a three-meter-deep pool hollowed by the waterfall.
Isonnam Falls, whose waters fall vigorously in two lines as if competing with each other, is a precious living monument that adds beauty to the natural landscape of the area for its peculiar and beautiful appearance and serves as a cultural resort for the people.
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Jo Dec 11, 2024
The Monument to the Great Victory in Yonsong Area is in Yonan County Town, South Hwanghae Province. It was erected in 1608, in commemoration of the victory in the battle on Yonan Fort during the Imjin Patriotic War.
During the war, the Korean people organized themselves into volunteer armies in all parts of the country and waged a vigorous struggle to drive out the Japanese invaders.
During those days, there was a proud story in which the righteous volunteers led by Ri Jong Am defended Yonan Fort to the last by beating back three thousand Japanese invaders.
The monument tells about the death-defying battles to repulse the Japanese invaders who attacked the fort from late August to early September in 1592.
The monument is standing on a double-layer rectangular pedestal block of granite. The body is made of black marble and the top is faced to form a semicircle without a head stone.
The inscription is said to have been composed by Ri Hang Bok, who was known as a clever writer in those days.
The Monument to the Great Victory in Yonsong Area, like the Monument to the Great Victory in Pukgwan, is a precious national treasure relic that tells about the victory won by the Korean people in the struggle to drive back the Japanese aggressors during the Imjin Patriotic War.
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