[4] In September 1909, Sentetsu began construction of a rail line running between P'yŏngyang and Chinnamp'o (nowadays Namp'o).

The line was heavily damaged during the Korean War, but was subsequently rebuilt and expanded, with the construction of Sinnamp'o Station to serve glass factories and shipbuilders located there.

The project, supported by Russia, is intended to form the first stage of a larger-scale cooperation with the Russian Railways as part of a 20-year development project that would modernise around 3,500 km (2,200 mi) of the North Korean rail network, and would include the construction of a north-south freight bypass around P'yŏngyang.

[10] A wide array of industries along the mainline of the P'yŏngnam Line are all served by freight trains, and import-export traffic through Namp'o Port - North Korea's largest in terms of traffic - is also moved by rail along this line.

[13] There is a significant amount of short-distance freight traffic between Kangsŏn and the Posan Line via Kangsŏ: the April 13 Ironworks, located at Posan, produces pig iron that is all shipped to the Ch'ŏllima Steel Complex; the ironworks receives some of its raw material via rail, as well.

There are freight loading facilities at East Kwangryang, Rosang, Kwisŏng and P'yŏngnam Onch'ŏn.