Vinylon
synthetic fiber
Vinylon, also known as Vinalon (more common in Korean sources), is a synthetic fiber produced from reaction between polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber and formaldehyde. Chemically it is polyvinyl formal (PVF). Vinylon was first developed in Japan in 1939 by Ichiro Sakurada, Ri Sung-gi, and H. Kawakami. In North Korea, Ri Sung-gi found a route to produce PVA from domestic anthracite (black coal) and limestone as raw materials. Trial production began in 1954 and in 1961 the massive "Vinylon City" was built in Hamhung, North Korea. Vinylon's widespread usage in North Korea is often pointed to as an example of the implementation of the Juche philosophy, and it is known as the Juche fiber.
PVF, in fiber form, is a useful thermoplastic resin on its own, most commonly used as electric wire insulation.
Applications
Vinylon is the national fiber of North Korea and is used for the majority of textiles, outstripping fiber such as cotton or nylon, which is produced only in small amounts in North Korea. Other than clothing, vinylon is also used for shoes, ropes, and quilt wadding.
Japanese-Canadian textile artist Toshiko MacAdam used vinylon in her early works, as it was more economical than nylon.
“Vinylon” enters the record as synthetic fiber. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Vinylon, synthetic and fiber can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Vinylon” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Vinylon, synthetic and fiber provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q427752. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1954 and 1961.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vinylon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.