Uiju

English

Etymology

From Korean 의주(義州) (Uiju).

Pronunciation

• enPR: o͝oʹēʹjo͞oʹ

Proper noun

Uiju

1. A county of North Pyongan Province, North Korea.
   • [1882, G. W. Keeton, “Regulations for Maritime and Overland Trade between Chinese and Korean Subjects, 1882”, in The Development of Extraterritoriality in China‎^[2], volume II, Longmans, Green & Co., published 1928, →OCLC, page 341:

     Article V.—In consideration of the numerous difficulties arising from the authority exercised by local officials over the legal traffic at such places on the boundary as I-chou, Hui-ning, and Ch’ing-yuan, it has now been decided that the people on the frontier shall be free to go to and fro and trade as they please at Ts’e-men and I-chou on the two sides of the Ya-lu River, and at Hun-ch’un and Hui-ning on the two sides of the T’u-men River.

     (Note: I-chou is the Mandarin-derived name (Wade-Giles) for Uiju.)]

   • 1977, Martina Deuchler, “Korea Between China and Japan”, in Confucian Gentlemen and Barbarian Envoys: The Opening of Korea, 1875-1885‎^[3], University of Washington Press, published 1983, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 142:

     Article 5 permitted Chinese and Koreans to trade at Ch’aengmun and Ŭiju on the Yalu River and at Hun-ch’un and Hoeryŏng on the Tumen River, the duties to be 5 percent ad valorem on all goods except red ginseng.

   • 2007, Andre Schmid, “Tributary Relations and the Qing-Chosŏn Frontier on Mount Paektu”, in Diana Lary, editor, The Chinese State at the Borders‎^[4], UBC Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 137:

     Mukedeng next tried to get more information on the frontier by ordering some minor local officials to write a detailed description of all they knew about the geography between Uiju and the Pyesagun as far as Kapsan, even including the six commanderies in the lower stretches of the Yalu River.

   • 2008, Robert Willoughby, “The Border with China and Beyond”, in North Korea (Bradt Travel Guides)‎^[5], 2nd edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 204:

     Visitors to Sinuiju are often diverted to the city of Uiju, further north along the Amnok. It was first known as Ryongman, meaning ‘a river bend with dragons’, but the city’s history is largely steeped in battling invaders from every direction, mostly from China. From Koguryo a fort existed here and the city never lost its military significance. Peaceful trade links over the river made Uiju prosperous in times of peace, and it was the provincial capital from 1907 to 1923, when Sinuiju took over.

   • 2013 July, Defector XXX, quotee, “The Reality of Human Rights of North Korean Escapees”, in White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea 2013‎^[6], Korea Institute for National Unification, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 490:

     NKHR2008000011 2008-08-12; North Korean defector XXX testified that in March 2004 at Uiju County, North Pyongan Province he/she and two sisters also received one year sentence on charges of illegal border crossing, but had to serve more than a year at No. 11 correctional center. (Interview with defector XXX in Seoul on June 15, 2008).

   • 2022 January 13, Sang-Hun Choe, “North Korea Fires 2 Ballistic Missiles After Lashing Out Over Sanctions”, in The New York Times‎^[7], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-01-15, Asia Pacific‎^[8]:

     Two short-range ballistic missiles took off from Uiju, a county near the northwestern corner of North Korea, and flew 267 miles before crashing off the country’s east coast, the South Korean military said.

   • 2022 January 28, Tong-hyung Kim, “N. Korea, after harsh 2-year lockdown, slowly reopens border”, in AP News‎^[9], archived from the original on 2022-01-27‎^[10]:

     Commercial satellite images indicate that the first North Korean freight train that crossed the Yalu River last week then returned from China and unloaded cargo at an airfield in the border town of Uiju, according to the North Korea-focused 38 North website. The airfield is believed to have been converted to disinfect imported supplies, which may include food and medicine.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Uiju.

Synonyms

• (from Mandarin Chinese) I-chou

Translations

county

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 義州／义州 (Yìzhōu)

• Japanese: 義州 (ウィジュ)
• Korean: 의주 (Uiju)

Further reading

• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Uiju”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[11], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 3260, column 2