ISO 3166-2:KP is the entry for North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.
Currently for North Korea, ISO 3166-2 codes are defined for two metropolitan cities, one capital city, one special city, and nine provinces. All of them except the metropolitan city are province-level subdivisions. The three special administrative regions, i.e. the Kaesong Industrial Region, the Mount Kumgang Tourist Region, and the Sinuiju Special Administrative Region, are not listed.
Each code consists of two parts, separated by a hyphen. The first part is KP, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of North Korea. The second part is two digits:
Subdivision names are listed as in the ISO 3166-2 standard published by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA).
Click on the button in the header to sort each column.
| Code | Subdivision name (ko) (McCune-Reischauer 1939) [a] | Subdivision name (ko) (KPS 11080:2002) | Subdivision name (ko) [b] | Subdivision name (en) [c] | Subdivision category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KP-04 | Chagang-do | Jakangto | 자강도 | Chagang | province |
| KP-09 | Hamgyǒng-bukto | Hamkyeongpukto | 함경북도 | North Hamgyong | province |
| KP-08 | Hamgyǒng-namdo | Hamkyeongnamto | 함경남도 | South Hamgyong | province |
| KP-06 | Hwanghae-bukto | Hwanghaipukto | 황해북도 | North Hwanghae | province |
| KP-05 | Hwanghae-namdo | Hwanghainamto | 황해남도 | South Hwanghae | province |
| KP-15 | Kaesŏng | Kaeseong | 개성 | Kaesong | metropolitan city |
| KP-07 | Kangwǒn-do | Kangweonto | 강원도 | Kangwon | province |
| KP-14 | Namp’o | Nampho | 남포 | Nampo | metropolitan city |
| KP-03 | P'yǒngan-bukto | Phyeonganpukto | 평안북도 | North Pyongan | province |
| KP-02 | P'yǒngan-namdo | Phyeongannamto | 평안남도 | South Pyongan | province |
| KP-01 | P'yǒngyang | Phyeongyang | 평양 | Pyongyang | capital city |
| KP-13 | Rasǒn (Local variant: Najin Sǒnbong) | Raseon | 라선 (Local variant: 라진 선봉) | Rason | special city |
| KP-10 | Ryanggang-do | Ryangkangto | 량강도 | Ryanggang | province |
The following changes to the entry are listed on ISO's online catalogue, the Online Browsing Platform:
| Effective date of change | Short description of change (en) |
|---|---|
| 2017-11-23 | Change of spelling of KP-10, KP-13 (McCune-Reischauer, 1939); addition of metropolitan city KP-14; update List Source. |
| 2014-12-18 | Deletion of the space between "de" and the parenthesis in the short French name lower case. |
| 2010-02-19 | Administrative update, replacement of alphabetical characters with numeric characters in second code element |
| 2022-11-29 | Addition of metropolitan city KP-15; Update List Source |
The following changes to the entry have been announced in newsletters by the ISO 3166/MA since the first publication of ISO 3166-2 in 1998. ISO stopped issuing newsletters in 2013.
| Newsletter | Date issued | Description of change in newsletter | Code/Subdivision change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newsletter I-4 | 2002-12-10 | Addition of one special city. Subdivision categories in header re-sorted | Subdivisions added: KP-NAJ Najin Sonbong-si |
| Newsletter I-6 | 2004-03-08 | Spelling correction in header of list source | |
| Newsletter II-1 | 2010-02-03 (corrected 2010-02-19) | Administrative update, replacement of alphabetical characters with numeric characters in second code element | Subdivisions deleted: KP-KAE Kaesong-si KP-NAM Nampo-si Codes: format changed (see below) |
| Before | After | Subdivision name |
|---|---|---|
| KP-CHA | KP-04 | Chagang-do |
| KP-HAB | KP-09 | Hamgyongbuk-do |
| KP-HAN | KP-08 | Hamgyongnam-do |
| KP-HWB | KP-06 | Hwanghaebuk-do |
| KP-HWN | KP-05 | Hwanghaenam-do |
| KP-KAN | KP-07 | Kangwon-do |
| KP-PYB | KP-03 | Pyonganbuk-do |
| KP-PYN | KP-02 | Pyongannam-do |
| KP-YAN | KP-10 | Yanggang-do |
| KP-NAJ | KP-13 | Najin Sonbong-si |
| KP-PYO | KP-01 | Pyongyang-si |