A line from Tŏkch'ŏn to P'arwŏn had been planned already in the 1940s by the West Chosen Central Railway, after receiving permission from the Railway Bureau of the Government-General of Korea in 1940 to extend its line beyond Tŏkch'ŏn.[2] However, by the end of the war, construction had been completed only as far as Changsangri (today on the Changsang Line), although work had begun on the line towards Kujang; it was only in 1953 after the end of the Korean War that the Tŏkp'al Line to P'arwŏn (the line's name came from the two termini, Tŏkch'ŏn and P'alwŏn) via Kujang was finally completed.[3] The line was then extended further, reaching Kusŏng in 1976. Although by then the line ran Kujang–Kusŏng and the Tŏkch'ŏn–Kujang section had been made part of the P'yŏngdŏk Line, it retained the "Tŏkp'al Line" name until then.