Mokpo, city, southwestern South Korea, in South Jeolla Province, on a bay of the Yellow Sea. A leading port, it is a road and rail terminus and the gateway by steamer to Jeju Island. Rice, fish, cotton, hides, and shellfish are exported. The city is a trade center in an agricultural region of rice paddies and cotton fields. Its principal industries are fishing and fish processing, cotton ginning, rice refining, food and cottonseed-oil processing, canning, and sake brewing. It is the seat of Mokpo Education College (1962). In 1897 the port was opened to foreign trade, and in 1904 American cotton was first successfully cultivated, adding to the importance of the port and its hinterland. Under Japanese rule from 1910 until the end of World War II in 1945, the city was called Moppo. Population (1995) 247,524.