[1] Although located entirely inside North Hamgyŏng Province, this line is one of the DPRK's main trunk railways.

It runs inland in mountainous terrain between Panjuk to Hoeryŏng, then along the Tumen River and the northern border of the country all the way to Rajin.

The damage sustained by the line during the war - including the destruction of the Tumen River bridges at both Hunyung and Sambong - was slow to be repaired due to strained relations between the Soviets and the Korean People's Committees; those two bridges have not been repaired to the present day.

The station at Khasan was opened on 28 September 1951, and in 1952 a wooden railway bridge was built across the Tumen River to Tumangang in North Korea,[8] connecting to the newly built Hongŭi Line from Tumangang to Hongŭi on the North Chosen Line.

The Korean-Russian Friendship Bridge across the Tumen River was commissioned on 9 August 1959, replacing the temporary wooden bridge, which had grown to be insufficient for the traffic crossing the river,[9] and in 1965 the P'yŏngra Line was completed to Rajin, meeting up with the terminus of the Hambuk Line.

[2] There are also various commuter trains that serve the main industrial zones along the line, including trains 623/624 operating between Rajin and Sŏnbong;[1] between Kogŏnwŏn on the Kogŏnwŏn Line and Hunyung via Singŏn; between Hoeryŏng and Ch'ŏn'gŏ-ri; between Ch'angp'yŏng and Sŏkpong; between Namyang and Hunyung; and between Hoeryŏng and Sech'ŏn via Sinhakp'o.