There have been several news reports this week that Pyongyang has gotten smaller as periphery areas were transferred to another province. I was a little confused by this news because I first read about it back in July 2010.
But anyhow, since there are not any good maps out there of the reapportionment, I will post this one I made on Google Earth:
The red and green areas combined represent Pyongyang’s boundaries up until the change. The red areas, kangnam-gun, Junghwa-gun, Sangwon-gun, and the Sungho district, are all now counties (gun, 군 ) in North Hwanghae province.
Update (2/25/2011): The Daily NK writes about this as well.
To read speculation as to why these changes were made, check out the stories below:
N. Korea halves Pyongyang in size in apparent economic bids: sources
Yonhap
Sam Kim
2/14/2011
Pyongyang Downsized
Choson Ilbo
2/15/2011
