The current population of Pyongyang is 3. For comparison, the next-biggest, the city of Hamhung, has a population of , Pyongyang was reputedly founded in BC a long time ago , when it was the capital city of Gojoseon.
Variously captured by the Japanese and the Chinese in the 16 th and 17 th centuries respectively, Pyongyang was relegated to the status of provincial capital under Koryo and Joseon Korea. In the s β when it had a population of around 40, β Pyongyang was the site of the unimaginatively-titled Battle of Pyongyang, during the invasion that eventually led to Japanese colonial rule. On August 25 th , the USSR rolled into town and set one of their first Cold War gambits into play by installing a temporary puppet government in the North.
When the DPRK was established in , Pyongyang was intended as a temporary capital, with the eventual aim being to recapture Seoul and establish it as the capital of a unified Korea.
Pyongyang remains the capital of the North. During the Korean War the city was almost completely destroyed by US shelling. Pyongyang was rebuilt with a little help from Moscow, and the groundwork was laid for the infrastructure that would one day bloom into modern-day Pyongyang. Since the premiership of Kim Kong Un the city has undergone something of a renaissance, and for the first time in its history boasts brightly-lit night-time buildings and an honest-to-God skyline.
Alas, the Ryugyong Hotel has yet to be finished. Since the premiership of Chairman Kim Jong Un the city has had a real renaissance, and is brightly lit with huge buildings being raised on an almost weekly basis.
