[2] According to archaeological findings near the lower areas of the Tumen river, evidence of human living traces back to the paleolithic period.

[3] According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the region was where the tribe kingdoms of Buyeo, Mohe, Okjeo, Yilou, Yemaek and Sushen existed.

[3] Chongjin was a small fishing village prior to the Japanese annexation of Korea; its date of establishment is unknown.

[2] During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, Japanese forces landed at Chongjin and established a supply base due to its proximity to the front lines in Manchuria.

The Soviet Red Army overran the city after brief resistance on 13 August 1945, only two days before the end of World War II.

[citation needed] In April 1969, a Lockheed EC-121M Super Constellation of the US Navy (135749) was shot down by two North Korean MiG-17 fighters SE of Chongjin over the Sea of Japan.

[6] During the North Korean famine of the 1990s, Chongjin was one of the worst affected locations in the country; death rates may have been as high as 20%.

[2] This problem has caused several instances of civil unrest in Chongjin, a rarity in North Korea.

[2] Rising grain prices and government attempts to prohibit "peddling in the market" have been cited as causes for the protests.

"[7] On 24 August 2008, a clash occurred between foot patrol agents and female merchants, which escalated into a "massive protest rally".

It was reported that the Chongjin local government-issued verbal instructions relaxing the enforcement activity until the time of the next grain ration.

[citation needed] With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent shortage of oil to generate electricity, many factories have been shuttered.

One of the first senior U.N. officials permitted to visit the area, Tun Myat, observed in 1997 when the North Korea economic crisis reached its peak, "Chongjin was like a forest of scrap metal, with huge plants that seem to go on for miles and miles that have been turned into rust buckets.

During the late 1990s, the city's residents experienced some of the highest death rates from famine, which might have been as high as 20 percent of the population.

[2] Chongjin's port has established itself as a critical component of busy international shipping trade with neighbouring parts of Northeast and Southeast Asia.