The river rises in the Rangrim Mountains of the country's north where it then flows southwest into Korea Bay at Namp'o.

[citation needed] Because of its depth, it is widely used for river transport; it is navigable by large ships up to 65 km inland, although most commercial traffic stops at Songrim.

Many archeological sites dating to the neolithic and Bronze Ages have been found along the river, as well as relics and ruins from Koguryo.

[5] Max Desfor's photograph of the event, Flight of Refugees Across Wrecked Bridge in Korea, would win the 1951 Pulitzer Prize in Photography.

[6] In 1986, the government completed the 8-km-long West Sea Barrage, with three locks and 36 sluices, at the mouth of the Taedong River near Namp'o.