Since North Korean independence, the city has developed a wide range of industry and has seen significant recent redevelopment.

[6] In the late Goryeo period, the area was named Chungnampo for the village of Pogu, located to the south of Chungsan County.

[6] The name of the city comes from the fishing village that was originally located in the Samhwa-hyon[Note 1] area of South Pyongan Province.

North of the city are facilities for freight transportation, aquatic products, and fishery, and a sea salt factory.

After the foundation of North Korea, the conditions rapidly improved and it was transformed into a modern rural economy and fishery industry.

[15][16] Prior to liberation, the industry was fully committed to military needs to supply the Japanese imperialist ambition and was an important port for munitions transport.

[22] A number of Hainan (Taechong) class patrol vessels, Osa (Soju)-class missile boats, Nongo class fast attack crafts, Komar-class missile boats, Nampo-class corvettes and a Najin-class frigate are based in Nampo.

A large building is said to contain the centrifuges for isotope separation and is surrounded by a wall, which according to the report, is a sign of a high security facility.

[25] However, these features are common in North Korea, and buildings with security fencing, on-site housing and monuments to the Kim family and are not proof of a uranium enrichment facility.

The Korean People's Army brigades that were assigned to the nuclear program are fixed, unlike the shock troops deployed for hydroelectric power station or apartment construction and if they were moved to Nampo, there should be evident signs in satellite imagery, of which there were none.

In comparison, the nearby Chamjin Missile Factory (Tae-sung Machine Plant) has noticeably higher security; an actual enrichment facility at the Nyongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center has multiple gates and inspection posts and is in a significantly less exposed position.

Underneath the city, there are iron, manganese, titanium along with other precious metals, including gold and silver.

The branch could be only served from the direction of the stadium, and was in poor condition with the overhead line no longer stretched with it not being used at least since 2011.

[33] Operation was returned to normal from 24 August 2021, when the city authorities declared a push to improve transport, which included normalising the trolleybus service.

[34] In November 2015, a solar panel electric bus developed by the science and technological committee of Nampo was tested in the city.

It was an 88 km line with cars that were man-powered and running on 530 mm (21 in) tracks but was dismantled not long after it began operation.

Passenger ships run from Nampo Port to Sohae-ri, Songrim, Unchon County and Pyongyang.

Nampo Harbour is often used as the primary port of call for receiving foreign food aid assistance into North Korea.

The port of Nampo has modern harbour facilities that can accommodate ships of 20,000 tonnes but is frozen during the winter.

A South Korean-based relief organisation, Join Together Society, donated one batch of flour in October of the same year weighing approximately 500 tons.

[46] Walls were built with shipping containers which marked a path to the warehouses and divided the port into cargo storage areas, although the purpose is not known but possibly related to COVID-19.

[18] Institutes of higher learning in Nampo include Parts of the World Cultural Heritage listed Koguryo tombs are located in Ryonggang County, dating to the 5th century which provides much information on the study of the social, architectural, painting and castles of the Koguryo dynasty.

[51] An early Koryo Dynasty era granite Buddhist image was unearthed by the Kim Il Sung University and Academy of Social Sciences [ko] and registered to the list of national treasures in 2019.