1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
North Korea
Compare this sourced profile of Hamhung, North Korea before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Hamhung—559,056, Asia/Pyongyang, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: city in North Korea.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Hamhung is GeoNames ID 1877449. Its recorded administrative path is South Hamgyong → North Korea, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Hamhŭng occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-04-14; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Hamhung ranks 995 by recorded population. Inside the 2 selected North Korea entries it ranks 2; inside the 632 entries in its broad region it ranks 530. Its 559,056 population value is 0.30 times the 1,890,528 median for the country cohort and 0.55 times the 1,008,426 regional median. Hamhung is rank 2 among the 2 selected North Korea entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Hamhung's recorded value is materially below the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Hamhung's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Pyongyang at 181.84 km with 3,222,000 recorded people; Tonghua at 241.81 km with 510,000 recorded people; Uijeongbu-si at 245.729 km with 479,141 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 63.889 km. Compared with Pyongyang, Hamhung's recorded population is 0.17 times as large. Against Hamhung, Pyongyang follows Pyongyang → North Korea in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected North Korea cohort, uses the shared Asia/Pyongyang identifier, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Hamhung's. Against Hamhung, Tonghua follows Tonghua Shi → Jilin → China in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected China cohort rather than North Korea, uses Asia/Shanghai instead of Asia/Pyongyang, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Hamhung's. Against Hamhung, Uijeongbu-si follows Uijeongbu-si → Gyeonggi-do → South Korea in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected South Korea cohort rather than North Korea, uses Asia/Seoul instead of Asia/Pyongyang, and carries populated place rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Hamhung's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 955 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Hamhung's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 1877449, the coordinate pair 39.9183 / 127.5364, country rank 2 of 2, and neighbor GeoNames 1871859 at 181.84 km bind Hamhung to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Hamhung's reference point is 39.9183° north and 127.5364° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Pyongyang is shared by 2 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Hamhung's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Hamhung's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Hamhung's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Hamhung, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Hamhung's closest other entries in this atlas are Pyongyang (181.84 km), Tonghua (241.81 km), Uijeongbu-si (245.729 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Hamhung, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-14; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.