Wonsan

Wonsan grew from a fishing settlement on Yonghung Bay into one of Korea's first treaty ports, opened to foreign trade in 1880 under pressure from Japan. Western and Japanese merchants settled, a foreign quarter appeared beside the Korean town, and the harbour's deep water and shelter made it the natural outlet for the east coast. Under Japanese rule, when it was known as Genzan, it became a rail junction with lines north to Hamhung, west to Pyongyang and south towards Seoul, and a shipyard and other industry were added. A general strike in 1929, triggered by the treatment of Korean workers under Japanese rule, is remembered in Korean labour history.

Kim Il-sung is recorded as having come ashore at Wonsan in 1945 on his return from the Soviet Union, and the city has held a particular place in the state's account of itself ever since. During the Korean War the port was one of the most heavily attacked places in the country: it was blockaded and shelled by United Nations naval forces from February 1951 until the armistice in July 1953, 861 days and the longest naval blockade in modern history, and the town was largely destroyed.

The post-war city was rebuilt on a wide grid with the port, the shipyard and the railway at its centre, and a fishing fleet, a university of agriculture and a teachers' college beside them. From the 2010s the state redirected the city towards tourism, building the Masikryong ski resort in the hills in 2013, rebuilding the airport, and raising a long line of hotels and apartment towers along the Kalma peninsula's beach.

Wonsan's identity is a mixture of port town, holiday resort and showcase. The beach at Songdowon has been a bathing place since the colonial period, and the summer camp there, which has taken both North Korean children and small groups from abroad, is one of the images the state most likes to present. Mass beach events, sports days and holiday stays for workers judged to deserve them are part of the city's calendar.

The official culture is the national one: monuments and portraits of the leaders, organised gatherings on the anniversaries of the state calendar, and the structuring of social life through work units, schools and neighbourhood organisations. Wonsan's place in that story is tied to Kim Il-sung's landing in 1945 and to the leadership's long association with the city, which has helped draw investment that most provincial cities never see.

Culturally the city belongs to Kangwon province, whose name and much of whose landscape are shared with a province of the same name on the southern side of the demilitarised zone. The Kumgang mountains to the south have been a subject of Korean painting and poetry for centuries, and the coast's fishing villages have their own seasonal rhythms and shrines to the sea. Local speech sits between the standard of Pyongyang and the Hamgyong dialect of the north-east.

Wonsan has in the region of 330,000 people and is the capital of Kangwon province. The port, the shipyard, fishing and food processing, a rolling stock and machinery works, and the province's administration provide most formal employment, alongside the agricultural university and the colleges, which give the city a student population.

Fishing shapes the year: squid, pollock and crab are landed at the quays and dried in the open along the shore, and state campaigns push the fleet to meet catch targets. Farming on the narrow coastal plain and in the valleys inland supplies maize, potatoes, rice and vegetables. Construction has been a large employer for a decade, first at Masikryong and the airport, then along the Kalma beach front, work carried out largely by soldiers and mobilised labour.

Daily life follows the national pattern of assigned workplaces, rationing supplemented by markets, and regular political meetings. Electricity is unreliable and heating in winter depends on coal, though the city is better supplied than smaller towns. Residents swim and picnic at Songdowon in summer; trolleybuses and buses run along the main avenues, and bicycles are common. The contrast between the new shoreline towers and the ageing blocks inland is the city's most visible division.

Wonsan eats from the bay. Clams grilled over coals on the sand are the dish most associated with the city, and squid, crab, sea urchin, sea cucumber and pollock come off the boats through the year. Pollock (myongtae) is dried on wooden racks along the coast for winter, its roe salted and spiced, and smaller fish are fermented into sikhae, a sour preserve made with millet and chilli that is a speciality of the north-east.

The region's noodles are famous. Wonsan sits between two traditions: the buckwheat naengmyeon served in cold broth that Pyongyang is known for, and the chewy potato-starch noodles of Hamgyong, dressed with red chilli and often topped with seasoned raw fish. Both are eaten here, along with potato and maize dishes from the mountain valleys inland — pancakes, dumplings and thick starch noodles.

Everyday meals for most households are plain: rice or maize with kimchi, soup and whatever fish is available, with meat a luxury. Seaweed, laver and shellfish gathered from the shore supplement what the ration system and the markets provide. The drinks are the national ones — soju, locally brewed beer, barley tea and bottled mineral water from mountain springs — and the elaborate multi-dish meals served to tour groups bear little relation to what is eaten in the flats behind the sea front.