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Kanggye Line

railway line in North Korea

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ5364262
Source-derived summary

The Kanggye Line is an electrified narrow-gauge line of the Korean State Railway in North Korea running from Kanggye on the Manp'o Line to Rangrim, primarily hauling forest products. An interesting feature of the line is a significant switchback west of Rangrim.

History

The Kanggye Line was built by the Korean State Railway in the late 1940s to aid in the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Changjin River in the Rangrim mountains; construction of the dam had been started by the Japanese in 1937. Following an order issued in September 1999 by Kim Jong-il, electrification of the line at 1500 V DC was completed on 5 October 2000.

Route

A yellow background in the "Distance" box indicates that section of the line is not electrified; a pink background indicates that section is 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge; an orange background indicates that section is non-electrified narrow gauge.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kanggye Line” as railway line in North Korea. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1937, 1999, 1500, 2000—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Kanggye, Line and railway can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as railway line in North Korea. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5364262. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1937, 1999, 1500 and 2000.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. 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.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kanggye Line”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kanggye Line primary sources, Kanggye Line archive and Kanggye research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kanggye Line”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Kanggye Line” 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.