Map - North Halmahera Regency (Kabupaten Halmahera Utara)

North Halmahera Regency (Kabupaten Halmahera Utara) is a regency (on Halmahera Island) of North Maluku Province, Indonesia. It was declared a Regency on 31 May 2003. The capital town of the regency lies at the port of Tobelo. The Regency, which has been considerably reduced by the separation of Tidore and (more recently) of Morotai Island, now covers an area of 3,891.62 km2 and had a population of 161,847 people at the 2010 Census, 179,783 at the 2015 Intermediate Census. and 197,640 at the 2020 Census. The official estimate as at mid 2021 was 199,936. The principal settlements are Tobelo, Kao and Galela. The area is noted for its white beaches and coral reefs.

Apart from the importance of its 115 islands (19 have remained unnamed) for spices, North Hamahera was a World War II base camp. The Japanese and the American allies fought for its control. From the island of Morotai, Americans headed by the General of the Army Douglas MacArthur prepared for an attack on the Philippines.

Halmahera and its small islands are located in the Coral Triangle, which has rich marine life. Marine biodiversity data on reef fishes was collected during a rapid survey conducted at 28 locations in 2005 in the south-western part of Halmahera. Explorer Gerry Allen, during his diving surveys in 2005, recorded 803 species of reef fishes.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the area was generally within the sphere of influence of the powerful sultanate on the island of Ternate. A larger region, called Moro, included the island of Morotai and parts of the North Halmahera coastline. The Portuguese were a formidable presence in the area and they built a number of fortifications and controlled the island Ternate, off the southwest coast of the North Halmahera Regency. In the mid-16th century, a Portuguese Jesuit mission visited Hakmahera and Morotai. This created conflict with Muslims who at the time controlled Ternate and Halmahera and in 1571, they drove the Christians from Morotai.

In the early 17th century, the town of Dodinga, strategically located on Halmahera's west coast grew in influence. In 1627 and 1628, Sultan Hamzah of Ternate had much of the Christian population of the island moved to Malaya, on Ternate. Later, it was administered under the Dutch East Indies. North Halmahera, particularly Morotai, played a role in World War II. Morotai Island was captured by the Japanese in early 1942. Morotai's southern plain was taken by American forces in September 1944 during the Battle of Morotai, and used as a staging point for the Allied invasion of the Philippines in early 1945, and of Borneo in May and June of that year. Japanese soldier Teruo Nakamura was discovered in the Morotai jungle in 1974, as one of the WWII Japanese soldiers who held out subsequent to the Japanese military's surrender. Morotai Island is, since 2009, no longer part of North Halmahera Regency.

Since the 1980s, mining development and logging has dramatically increased in the area, often causing conflict with local inhabitants. The communities are dependent on fishing and forests and the financial benefits of these resources have gone to Jakarta and local elites outside Halmahera. These developments have also increased religious tension in the region. The Christians of North Halmahera were traditionally said to generally live a peaceful co-existence with Muslims, but violence broke out between the two religious groups in December 1999 and has since been the primary cause of conflict in the region. Many of the Christians on the island fled to Tobelo as a haven when the violence broke out. Shortly after the official area of the North Halmahera Regency was declared on 31 May 2003, in July 2003, 38 villages in Halmahera staged a protest against the Australian mining company Newcrest who is mining gold in the region.

When the decision was made to create the regency of North Halmahera, it was promised in the national parliament in Jakarta that a duty-free port similar to Batam would be established on Morotai Island. However, this never happened, as internal conflict led to a demand that Morotai should be separated from the regency. Hein Nemotemo, a Christian politician, rejected this move, given that Morotai is overwhelmingly Muslim. In August 2006, five members of the North Halmahera Regency legislature from Golkar, including Abdul Gafur lobbied in the national capital for the separation of Morotai as a new regency distinct from the North Halmahera Regency. This was approved by the Committee II in Jakarta and also by the provincial governor Thaib Armaiyn. From February to April 2007, supporters of the Morotai separatist movement sealed off the government headquarters, demanding that Morotai should become separate immediately. The split was delayed and in 2008, Nemotemo's group were all that stood in the way of the split. Fearing a repeat of the 1999-2000 violence, Nemotemo backed down. During the 2009 elections in Indonesia a governor candidate for Morotai was elected and it became a new regency.