Pyongyang

The name "Pyongyang" derives from the Sino-Korean words 平 (flat) and 壤 (land). It is the McCune–Reischauer romanisation of the Korean term '평양', which translates to 'flat land', reflecting the smooth terrain of the city. In native Korean, the city was called "Buruna" (부루나) or less commonly "Barana" (바라나) which, using the idu system, was the pronunciation of the Chinese characters of "Pyongyang". "Buru" (부루) means "field" whereas "na" (나) means "land", therefore the meaning of Pyongyang in native Korean would be "Land of the field". The city's other historic names include Ryugyong, Kisong, Hwangsong, Rakrang, Sŏgyong, Sodo, Hogyong, Changan, and Heijō (during Japanese rule in Korea). There are several variants. …

In 1955, archaeologists excavated evidence of prehistoric dwellings in a large ancient village in the Pyongyang area, called Kŭmtan-ni, dating to the Jeulmun and Mumun pottery periods. North Koreans associate Pyongyang with the mythological city of "Asadal", or Wanggeom-seong, the first capital of Gojoseon ("Old Joseon") in the second millennium BC, according to Korean historiographies beginning with the 13th-century Samguk yusa. Historians deny this claim because earlier Chinese historiographical works such as the Guanzi, Classic of Mountains and Seas, Records of the Grand Historian, and Records of the Three Kingdoms, mention a much later "Joseon". The connection between the two therefore may have been asserted by North Korea for the use of propaganda. Nevertheless, Pyongyang became a major city in old Joseon. …

Pyongyang is in the west-central part of North Korea; the city lies on a flat plain about 50 kilometers (31 mi) east of the Korea Bay, an arm of the Yellow Sea. The Taedong River flows southwestward through the city toward the Korea Bay. The Pyongyang plain, where the city is situated, is one of the two large plains on the Western coast of the Korean peninsula, the other being the Chaeryong plain. Both have an area of approximately 500 square kilometers. Pyongyang has a hot-summer continental monsoon climate (Köppen: Dwa), featuring warm to hot, humid summers and cold, dry winters. Cold, dry winds can blow from Siberia in winter, making conditions very cold; the low temperature is usually below freezing between November and early March, although the average daytime high is at least a few degrees above freezing in every month except January. …