page_title: Geography of North Korea
section_title: Topography and drainage
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of North Korea / Topography and drainage
caption_attribution_description: Topographic map of the territory claimed by North Korea. Created with GMT from SRTM data.
context_page_description: North Korea is located in East Asia on the Northern half of the Korean Peninsula.
  North Korea shares a border with three countries; China along the Amnok River, Russia along the Tumen River, and South Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The Yellow Sea and the Korea Bay are off the west coast and the Sea of Japan is off the east coast.
  Most of North Korea is a series of medium-sized to large-sized mountain ranges and large hills, separated by deep, narrow valleys. The highest peak, Paektu-san on the volcanic Baekdu Mountain, is located on its northern border with China, and rises 9,002 ft. Along the west coast there are wide coastal plains, while along the East Sea coastline, narrow plains rise into mountains. Similar to South Korea, dozens of small islands dot the western coastline. North Korea's longest river is the Yulu. Other large rivers include the Tumen, Taedong and Imjin.
context_section_description: The terrain consists mostly of hills and mountains separated by deep, narrow valleys. The coastal plains are wide in the west and discontinuous in the east.
  Early European visitors to Korea remarked that the country resembled "a sea in a heavy gale" because of the many successive mountain ranges that crisscross the peninsula. Some 80 percent of North Korea's land area is composed of mountains and uplands, with all of the peninsula's mountains with elevations of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) or more located in North Korea. The great majority of the population lives in the plains and lowlands.
  Paektu Mountain, the highest point in North Korea at 2,743 m (9,003 ft), is a volcanic mountain near Manchuria with basalt lava plateau with elevations between 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) and 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above sea level. The Hamgyong Range, located in the extreme northeastern part of the peninsula, has many high peaks, including Kwanmobong at approximately 2,541 metres (8,337 ft).
  Other major ranges include the Rangrim Mountains, which are located in the north-central part of North Korea and run in a north-south direction, making communication between the eastern and western parts of the country rather difficult; and the Kangnam Range, which runs along the North Korea–China border. Geumgangsan, often written Mt Kumgang, or Diamond Mountain, (approximately 1,638 metres (5,374 ft)) in the Thaebaek Range, which extends into South Korea, is famous for its scenic beauty.
  For the most part, the plains are small. The most extensive are the Pyongyang and Chaeryŏng plains, each covering about 500 km². Because the mountains on the east coast drop abruptly to the sea, the plains are even smaller there than on the west coast.
  The mountain ranges in the northern and eastern parts of North Korea form the watershed for most of its rivers, which run in a westerly direction and empty into the Yellow Sea and Korea Bay. The longest is the Amnok River, which is navigable for 678 km of its 790 kilometres (490 mi). The Tuman River, one of the few major rivers to flow into the Sea of Japan, is the second longest at 521 kilometres (324 mi) but is navigable for only 85 kilometres (53 mi) because of the mountainous topography.
  The third longest river, the Taedong River, flows through Pyongyang and is navigable for 245 of its 397 km. Lakes tend to be small because of the lack of glacial activity and the stability of the Earth's crust in the region. Unlike neighboring Japan or northern China, North Korea experiences few severe earthquakes. The country has a number of natural spas and hot springs, which number 124 according to one North Korean source.
caption: North Korea's topography
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