Vinylon

[1] In North Korea, Ri Sung-gi found a route to produce PVA from domestic anthracite (black coal) and limestone as raw materials.

Trial production began in 1954 and in 1961 the massive "Vinylon City" was built in Hamhung, North Korea.

Japanese-Canadian textile artist Toshiko MacAdam used vinylon in her early works, as it was more economical than nylon.

It was amid Japan's efforts towards creating a more scientific and technologically advanced country for the war when a team of researchers worked to fabricate Vinylon.

The first successful creation of Vinylon was in 1939, by a Kyoto University research team in Japan,[11] using petroleum as the feedstock.

Beginning at the end of the Korean War in 1953, the Soviet Union, China, and other communist countries began actively providing foreign aid to North Korea.

The construction of the factory took fourteen months, which was quite fast considering that fifty buildings made up Vinylon City.

Vinylon City had a total floor space of 130,000 m2 (1,400,000 sq ft), 15,000 production machines, 1,700 container tanks, and 500 km (310 mi) of piping.

The success of Vinylon City demonstrated independence from the Soviet Union and China and appeared to reflect the Juche ideology.

Even though workers had to complete dangerous tasks and some ultimately lost their lives for the sake of demonstrating the country's capabilities,[14] vinylon thus served as a reinforcement of the party's ideological command and the Kim family's rule.

[8] On February 8, 2010, Kim Jong Il visited the former Vinylon City complex in Hamhung to celebrate its reopening.

[8] Although vinylon was initially used to help develop the North Korean economy as a home-grown product, it also became intertwined with nationalism.