The West Sea Barrage was built by damming the eight-kilometre-long expanse of sea.
As he looked round the waters off Nampho aboard a ship for a long time on May 22 1981, President Kim Il Sung fixed the site of the barrage and specified the orientation and ways of its construction and the matters of manpower and machines to be mobilized in the project.
Leader Kim Jong Il inspected the construction site on several occasions to provide guidance so that the barrage was completed to the top standard and at the earliest possible period.
The workload of the project was enormous. It included the building of an enormous dam on the sea with an extensive tidal range and a barrage equipped with big lock chambers, spillways and comprehensive control facilities. The Korean people completed the barrage by themselves from design to execution in a matter of five years.
Its inaugural ceremony took place with splendour in June 1986.
The completion of the project brought about a turn in the country’s economic development.
A big artificial lake capable of storing billions of cubic metres of water came into being to provide the lower reaches of the Taedong River with irrigation water and industrial and drinking water. And the railway and roadway laid on the barrage formed a new traffic system on the west coast and spruced up the shore of the river.
The three lock chambers of the barrage have an annual total cargo carrying capacity of tens of millions of tons.
Press release on Enlarged Meeting of 13th Plenary Meeting of Eighth Central Committee of WPK
The Enlarged Meeting of the 13th Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea was held from
December 12, 2025
The Enlarged Meeting of the 13th Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea was held from
