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Infobox Country

native_name =
''Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk''
conventional_long_name=Democratic People's Republic of Korea
conventional_short_name=North Korea
common_name=North Korea
image_flag=Flag of North Korea.svg
image_coat=Coat of Arms of North Korea.svg
symbol_type=Coat of arms
image_map=North Korea (orthographic projection).svg
mapsize=220px
motto=강성대국
''Powerful and Prosperous Nation''
national_anthem=''Aegukka'' (애국가)
("The Patriotic Song")
official_languages=Korean
languages_type = Official scripts
languages = Chosŏn'gŭl
demonym=North Korean, Korean
capital=Pyongyang |latd=39 |latm=2 |latNS=N |longd=125 |longm=45 |longEW=E
government_type=''Juche'' republic,
Single-party system,
Military dictatorship
leader_title1=Eternal President
leader_title2=Supreme Leader
leader_title3=Defence Commission Chairman
leader_title4=Chairman of the Presidium
leader_title5=Premier
leader_name1=Kim Il-sung
(deceased)
leader_name2=Kim Jong-il
leader_name3=Kim Jong-il
leader_name4=Kim Yong-nam
leader_name5=Choe Yong-rim
legislature=Supreme People's Assembly
largest_city=Pyongyang
area_km2=120,540
area_sq_mi=46,528
area_rank=98th
area_magnitude=1 E11
percent_water=4.87
population_estimate=24,051,218
population_estimate_year=2009
population_estimate_rank=51st
population_census=
population_census_year=
population_density_km2=198.3
population_density_sq_mi=513.8
population_density_rank=55th
GDP_PPP_year=2008
GDP_nominal_year = 2009
GDP_nominal=$28.2 billion
GDP_nominal_rank=88th
GDP_nominal_per_capita=$1,244
GDP_nominal_per_capita_rank=139th
GDP_PPP = $40 billion
GDP_PPP_rank=94th
GDP_PPP_per_capita=$1,900 (2009 est.)
GDP_PPP_per_capita_rank=188th
Gini=n/a
Gini_year=2009
Gini_category=low
FSI=97.7 0.4
FSI_year=2007
FSI_rank=13th
FSI_category=Alert
sovereignty_type=Establishment
established_event1=Independence�declared
established_event2=Liberation
established_event3=Formal declaration
established_date1=March 1, 1919
established_date2=August 15, 1945
established_date3=September 9, 1948
currency=North Korean won (₩)
currency_code=KPW
time_zone=Korea Standard Time
utc_offset=+9
time_zone_DST=
utc_offset_DST=
date_format=yy, yyyy년 mm월 dd일
yy, yyyy/mm/dd (CE–1911, CE)
drives_on=right
cctld=.kp
calling_code=850
footnotes= a. Died 1994, named "Eternal President" in 1998.
b. Kim Yong-nam is the "head of state for foreign affairs".
North Korea''', officially the '''Democratic People's Republic of Korea''' ('''DPRK ) (Chosongul: 조선민주주의인민공화국), is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea. The Amnok River and the Tumen River form the border between North Korea and People's Republic of China. A section of the Tumen River in the extreme northeast is the border with Russia. The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was annexed by Japan following the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. It was divided into Soviet and American occupied zones in 1945, following the end of World War II. North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations–supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones. Both North and South Korea claimed sovereignty over the Korean Peninsula as a whole, which led to the Korean War of 1950. A 1953 armistice ended the fighting; however, the two countries are officially still at war with each other, as a peace treaty was never signed. North Korea is a single-party state under a united front led by the Korean Workers' Party (KWP).

cite news

url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/28/wnkorea128.xml
title = North Korea power struggle looms
accessdate=2007-10-31
last=Spencer
first=Richard
authorlink=Richard Spencer (journalist)
date=2007-08-28
work=The Telegraph (online version of UK national newspaper)
quote=A power struggle to succeed Kim Jong-il as leader of North Korea's Stalinist dictatorship may be looming after his eldest son was reported to have returned from semi-voluntary exile.
location=London

cite news

url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2388356.ece
title=North Korea's nuclear 'deal' leaves Japan feeling nervous
accessdate=2007-10-31
last=Parry
first=Richard Lloyd
authorlink=Richard Lloyd Parry
date=2007-09-05
work=The Times (online version of UK's national newspaper of record)
quote=The US Government contradicted earlier North Korean claims that it had agreed to remove the Stalinist dictatorship’s designation as a terrorist state and to lift economic sanctions, as part of talks aimed at disarming Pyongyang of its nuclear weapons.
location=London

cite web

url=http://socialistworld.net/eng/2003/02/08korea.html
title=The Korean crisis
accessdate=2007-10-31
last=Walsh
first=Lynn
authorlink=Lynn Walsh
date=2003-02-08
work=CWI online: Socialism Today, February 2003 edition, journal of the Socialist Party, CWI England and Wales
publisher=socialistworld.net, website of the committee for a worker’s international
quote=Kim Jong-il's regime needs economic concessions to avoid collapse, and just as crucially needs an end to the strategic siege imposed by the US since the end of the Korean war (1950–53). Pyongyang's nuclear brinkmanship, though potentially dangerous, is driven by fear rather than by militaristic ambition. The rotten Stalinist dictatorship faces the prospect of an implosion. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which deprived North Korea of vital economic support, the regime has consistently attempted to secure from the US a non-aggression pact, recognition of its sovereignty, and economic assistance. The US's equally consistent refusal to enter into direct negotiations with North Korea, effectively ruling out a peace treaty to formally close the 1950–53 Korean war, has encouraged the regime to resort to nuclear blackmail.

cite web

url=http://www.sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=333&Itemid=106
title=US is threat to peace not North Korea
accessdate=2007-10-31
last=Oakley
first=Corey
authorlink=Corey Oakley
year=2006
month=October
work=Edition 109 - October-November 2006
publisher=Socialist Alternative website in Australia
quote=In this context, the constant attempts by the Western press to paint Kim Jong-il as simply a raving lunatic look, well, mad. There is no denying that the regime he presides over is a nasty Stalinist dictatorship that brutally oppresses its own population. But in the face of constant threats from the US, Pyongyang's actions have a definite rationality from the regime's point of view.

cite news

url=http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/02/international/asia/02CND-KORE.html?ex=1380513600&en=a29d7f1e49aabee0&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
title=North Korea Says It Is Using Plutonium to Make A-Bombs
accessdate=2007-10-31
last=Brooke
first=James
authorlink=James Brooke (journalist)
date=2003-10-02
work=The New York Times
quote=North Korea, run by a Stalinist dictatorship for almost six decades, is largely closed to foreign reporters and it is impossible to independently check today's claims.

cite web

url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Let_The_Music_Play_On/articleshow/2859521.cms
title=Leader Article: Let The Music Play On
accessdate=2008-03-27
last=Baruma
first=Ian
authorlink=
date=
work=The Times of India
quote=North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is one of the world's most oppressive, closed, and vicious dictatorships. It is perhaps the last living example of pure totalitarianism - control of the state over every aspect of human life.
though Kim Il-sung had been using it to form policy since at least as early as 1955.

cite book

|last=Martin |first=Bradley K. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books |year=2004 |location=New York, NY |page=111 |quote=Although it was in that 1955 speech that Kim gave full voice to his arguments for ''juche'', he had been talking along similar lines as early as 1948. |doi= |id= |isbn=0-312-32322-0
Officially a socialist republic, many media organizations outside North Korea report that it is a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship.

cite web

url = http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2006&country=6993
title=Freedom in the World, 2006|publisher=Freedom House|accessdate=2007-02-13
quote=Citizens of North Korea cannot change their government democratically. North Korea is a totalitarian dictatorship and one of the most restrictive countries in the world.

cite news

url = http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/DEMOCRACY_TABLE_2007_v3.pdf
title=Economist Intelligence Unit democracy index 2006
accessdate=2007-10-09 |year=2007 |format=PDF |publisher=Economist Intelligence Unit
North Korea ranked in last place (167)

cite news

url=http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11465278
title=A portrait of North Korea's new rich
accessdate=2009-06-18|date=2008-05-29|work=The Economist
quote=EVERY developing country worth its salt has a bustling middle class that is transforming the country and thrilling the markets. So does Stalinist North Korea.
Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung have constructed around them a cult of personality. It is reported as having one of the world's worst human rights records. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a famine which killed an estimated 2-3 million people. Due to the government's secretive nature and its reluctance to allow in foreigners, North Korea is today considered the world's most isolated country. The current secretary of the KWP Central Committee Secretariat and leader of the armed forces is Kim Jong-il, son of Kim Il-sung.

History

In the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Korea which ended with Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel in accordance with a United Nations arrangement, to be administered by the Soviet Union in the north and the United States in the south. The history of North Korea formally begins with the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic in 1948.

Division of Korea

In August 1945, the Soviet Army established a Soviet Civil Authority to rule the country until a domestic regime, friendly to the USSR, could be established. The country was governed by the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea through 1948. After the Soviet forces' departure in 1948, the main agenda in the following years was unification of Korea from both sides until the consolidation of Syngman Rhee regime in the South with American military support and the suppression of the October 1948 insurrection ended hopes that the country could be reunified by way of Communist revolution in the South. In 1949, a military intervention into South Korea was considered by the Northern regime but failed to receive support from the Soviet Union, which had played a key role in the establishment of the country. The withdrawal of most United States forces from the South in June dramatically weakened the Southern regime and encouraged Kim Il-sung to re-think an invasion plan against the South.

Korean War

The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea with major hostilities beginning on June 25, 1950, pausing with signed on July 27, 1953. The conflict arose from the division of Korea by the UN and the attempts of the two Korean powers to reunify Korea under their respective governments. The division led to full scale civil war with a cost of more than 2 million civilians and soldiers from both sides. The period immediately before the war was marked by escalating border conflicts at the 38th parallel and attempts to negotiate elections for the entirety of Korea. These negotiations ended when the military of North Korea invaded the South on June 25, 1950. Under the aegis of the United Nations, nations allied with the United States intervened on behalf of South Korea. After rapid advances in a South Korean counterattack, North-allied Chinese forces intervened on behalf of North Korea, shifting the balance of the war and ultimately leading to an armistice that approximately restored the original boundaries between North and South Korea. While some have referred to the conflict as a civil war, there were many other factors at play. The Korean War was also the first armed confrontation of the Cold War and set the standard for many later conflicts. It created the idea of a proxy war, where the two superpowers would fight in another country, forcing the people in that nation to suffer the bulk of the destruction and death involved in a war between such large nations. The superpowers avoided descending into an all-out war with one another, as well as the mutual use of nuclear weapons. It also expanded the Cold War, which to that point had mostly been concerned with Europe. A heavily guarded demilitarized zone on the 38th parallel continues to divide the peninsula today with anti-Communist and anti-North Korea sentiment still remaining in South Korea. Since the ceasefire of the Korean War in 1953 the relations between the North Korean government and South Korea, the European Union, Canada, the United States, and Japan have remained tense. Fighting was halted in the ceasefire, but both Koreas are still technically at war.

Late 20th century

The relative peace between the south and the north was punctuated by border skirmishes and assassination attempts. The North failed in several assassination attempts on South Korean leaders, most notably in 1968, 1974 and the Rangoon bombing in 1983; tunnels were frequently found under the DMZ and war nearly broke out over the Axe Murder Incident at Panmunjeom in 1976. In the late 1990s, with the South having transitioned to democracy, the success of the Nordpolitik policy, and power in the North having been taken up by Kim Il-sung's son Kim Jong-il, the two nations began to engage publicly for the first time, with the South declaring its Sunshine Policy.

21st century

In 2002, United States president George W. Bush labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil" and an "outpost of tyranny". The highest-level contact the government has had with the United States was with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who made a visit to Pyongyang in 2000, Publicly, North Korea strongly demands the removal of American troops from Korea. On June 13, 2009, the Associated Press reported that in response to new UN sanctions, North Korea declared it would progress with its uranium enrichment program. This marked the first time the DPRK has publicly acknowledged that it is conducting a uranium enrichment program.

Geography

North Korea occupies the northern portion of the Korean Peninsula, covering an area of . North Korea's climate is relatively temperate. Most of the country is classified as type ''Dwa'' in the Köppen climate classification scheme, with warm summers and cold, dry winters. In summer there is a short rainy season called ''changma''. The capital and largest city is Pyongyang; other major cities include Kaesong in the south, Sinuiju in the northwest, Wonsan and Hamhung in the east and Chongjin in the northeast.

Topography

Early European visitors to Korea remarked that the country resembled "''a sea in a heavy gale''" because of the many successive mountain ranges that crisscross the peninsula. Some 80% of North Korea is composed of mountains and uplands, separated by deep and narrow valleys, with all of the peninsula's mountains with elevations of or more located in North Korea. The coastal plains are wide in the west and discontinuous in the east. A great majority of the population lives in the plains and lowlands. The highest point in North Korea is Baekdu Mountain which is a volcanic mountain near the Chinese border with basalt lava plateau with elevations between . Other major ranges include the Rangrim Mountains, which are located in the north-central part of North Korea and run in a north-south direction, making communication between the eastern and western parts of the country rather difficult; and the Kangnam Range, which runs along the North Korea–China border. Geumgangsan, often written Mt Kumgang, or Diamond Mountain, (approximately ) in the Taebaek Range, which extends into South Korea, is famous for its scenic beauty. For the most part, the plains are small. The most extensive are the Pyongyang and Chaeryong plains, each covering about . Because the mountains on the east coast drop abruptly to the sea, the plains are even smaller there than on the west coast. Unlike neighboring Japan or northern China, North Korea experiences few severe earthquakes.

Climate

North Korea has a continental climate with four distinct seasons. Long winters bring bitter cold and clear weather interspersed with snow storms as a result of northern and northwestern winds that blow from Siberia. Average snowfall is 37 days during the winter. The weather is likely to be particularly harsh in the northern, mountainous regions. Summer tends to be short, hot, humid, and rainy because of the southern and southeastern monsoon winds that bring moist air from the Pacific Ocean. Typhoons affect the peninsula on an average of at least once every summer. Spring and autumn are transitional seasons marked by mild temperatures and variable winds and bring the most pleasant weather. Natural hazards include late spring droughts which often are followed by severe flooding. There are occasional typhoons during the early fall.

Administrative divisions