Inchon

Inchon, South Korea: see Incheon.

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Inchon, Incheon

a port in W South Korea, on the Yellow Sea: the chief port for Seoul: site of a major strategic amphibious assault by UN troops, liberating Seoul (Sept. 15, 1950). Pop.: 2 642 000 (2005 est.)

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Inchon 

(Chemulpo), a city and port in South Korea, in Kyonggi Province. It is located on the Yellow Sea, near the mouth of the Han River. Population, 525,000 (1966).

Inchon is a transportation junction and major industrial center. Machine-building, metalworking (a motor assembly plant, a shipyard, a metal goods factory), steel, and chemical industries (including the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers) are located there. Sheet glass and porcelain and earthenware also are manufactured, and there are large textile factories, flour mills, and many handicraft workshops.

The first settlement on the site of the modern city dates from the first centuries of the Common Era. In the Middle Ages (especially beginning in the late 14th century), Inchon was one of the main trade centers of Korea. At the end of the 19th century it was opened to foreign trade.

The harbor of Inchon was the site of the heroic end (1904) of the Russian cruiser Variag and of the gunboat Koreets. In 1919, during the March popular uprising in Korea, there was stubborn barricade fighting by the people of Inchon against the Japanese punitive expedition. In the 1920’s and 1930’s the city was one of the principal centers of the proletarian movement (marked by the founding of Marxist circles and trade union organizations and by the major strikes of 1923–24 and 1930–31).

The Inchon region was the disembarkation site (Sept. 8, 1945) of American troops after the liberation of Korea by the Soviet Army. It was also an American landing site (Sept. 15–16, 1950) during the war in Korea in 1950–53. It is used by the USA as a naval base.