HAM-HEUNG, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. — Located in northwestern Korea, it borders the eastern gulf of Korea. It covers an area of 49,375 sq. km. and has a population of 2,500,000 inhabitants.
Erected on 5 Aug. 1920 from territory detached from the Vicariate of Seoul, it was named the Apostolic Vicariate of Wonsan, after the city of the same name, and entrusted to the Benedictines of St. Ottilia in Bavaria, who arrived there in Feb. 1909. On 19 Mar. 1922 the Holy See added to it the civil provinces of Yenki (now a suffragan diocese of Moukden) and Ilan, which at that time belonged to the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Manchuria.
Meanwhile, the Benedictines founded an abbey there, dedicated to St. Benedict, which, raised to the status of an abbey nullius (today Tokwon) on 12 Jan. 1940, incorporated a small part of the territory of the said vicariate, including the city of Wonsan itself. The vicariate was then entrusted to the Korean secular clergy, and its name was changed from Wonsan to the primary (Japanese) name of Kanko and the secondary (Korean) name of H.-H. The latter, finally, on 12 July 1950, became the sole official name. The Fathers of the Paris Foreign Missions Society wrote, first of all, splendid pages of missionary history in Korea, beginning in the first half of the 19th century, and in particular Fr. Bret, who settled in Wonsan in 1894. This vicariate has 6,067 Catholics; 427 catechumens; 5 native priests and 11 foreign priests; 5 native sisters and 3 foreign sisters; 6 major seminarians; 8 primary stations and 43 secondary ones; 6 churches and 15 chapels.