Hyesan

Originally a village in Goguryeo, and Balhae, it was lost to the Jurchen (Manchu) tribes after the fall of Balhae in 982. Recaptured in the 3rd year of King Gongmin (1391) of Goryeo from the Jurchens during the anarchy following the fall of Yuan dynasty, its permanent garrison was established by King Sejong of Joseon in 1430s. The Joseon military fortress and settlement named Haesanjin (혜산진; 惠山鎭) and is the forerunner of the modern city and its name. During the Korean war, Hyesan was the northernmost limit of US Army's advance, when the 15th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division reached the Yalu River at Hyesan on November 21, 1950 before the Chinese intervention. The city was a main border trafficking town between North Korea and China throughout late 20th century and early 21st century. …

The city is located south of the Paektu Mountains at the border with the People's Republic of China (Jilin province), from which it is separated by the Yalu (Amrok) River. Changbai is the closest Chinese city across the river. Hyesan has an elevation-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dwb). It is located in the coldest area of Korea, which holds a record low temperature of −42 °C or −43.6 °F in 1915.

Hyesan has lumber processing mills, paper mills and textile mills. Since the North Korean economic crisis that intensified in the mid-1990s, the city has suffered from economic stagnation, and some factories in the city have closed. Reports and pictures taken from the Chinese side of the river show a "Ghost City": there is almost no movement in the streets, and at night the city is dark and doesn't have electricity. Residents of the city reputedly wash their clothes in the river because homes have no running water. First explored in the 1960s, Hyesan mine produces 10,000 tons of copper concentrates annually. This area has 80% of North Korea's available copper, and the North had estimated that it will be able to continue mining copper there for the next forty years. …

Hyesan is connected to other cities in North Korea by road, and by the Paektusan Ch'ŏngnyŏn and Pukbunaeryuk lines of the Korean State Railway. Hyesan has a trolleybus system, though its actual existence is unknown, according to Pastor Jaeyoung Choi.

Yeonmi Park (b. 1993), activist and defector, escaped North Korea in 2007. Lee Hyeon-seo (b. 1980), activist and defector, escaped North Korea in 1997.