Portal:North Korea

The North Korea PortalThe North Korea Portal

Introduction

The flag of North Korea

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. North Korea, like its southern counterpart, claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city.

The Korean Peninsula was first inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic period. Its first kingdom was noted in Chinese records in the early 7th century BCE. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea into Silla and Balhae in the late 7th century, Korea was ruled by the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) and the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897). The succeeding Korean Empire (1897–1910) was annexed in 1910 into the Empire of Japan. In 1945, after the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II, Korea was divided into two zones along the 38th parallel, with the north occupied by the Soviet Union and the south occupied by the United States. In 1948, separate governments were formed in Korea: the socialist and Soviet-aligned Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north, and the capitalist, Western-aligned Republic of Korea in the south. The Korean War began when North Korean forces invaded South Korea in 1950. In 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire and established a demilitarized zone (DMZ), but no formal peace treaty has ever been signed. Post-war North Korea benefited greatly from economic aid and expertise provided by other Eastern Bloc countries. However, Kim Il Sung, North Korea's first leader, promoted his personal philosophy of Juche as the state ideology. Pyongyang's international isolation sharply accelerated from the 1980s onwards as the Cold War came to an end. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 then brought about a sharp decline to the North Korean economy. From 1994 to 1998, North Korea suffered a famine with the population continuing to suffer from malnutrition. In 2024, the DPRK formally abandoned efforts to peacefully reunify Korea.

North Korea is a totalitarian dictatorship with a comprehensive cult of personality around the Kim family. Amnesty International considers the country to have the worst human rights record in the world. Officially, North Korea is an "independent socialist state" which holds democratic elections; however, outside observers have described the elections as unfair, uncompetitive, and pre-determined, in a manner similar to elections in the Soviet Union. The Workers' Party of Korea is the ruling party of North Korea. According to Article 3 of the constitution, Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism is the official ideology of North Korea. The means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises and collectivized farms. Most services—such as healthcare, education, housing, and food production—are subsidized or state-funded.

North Korea follows Songun, a "military first" policy which prioritizes the Korean People's Army in state affairs and the allocation of resources. It possesses nuclear weapons. Its active-duty army of 1.28 million soldiers is the fourth-largest in the world. In addition to being a member of the United Nations since 1991, North Korea is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, G77, and the ASEAN Regional Forum. (Full article...)

North Korean farmers in a field.

Farming in North Korea is concentrated in the flatlands of the four west coast provinces, where a longer growing season, level land, adequate rainfall, and good irrigated soil permit the most intensive cultivation of crops. A narrow strip of similarly fertile land runs through the eastern seaboard Hamgyŏng provinces and Kangwŏn Province.

The interior provinces of Chagang and Ryanggang are too mountainous, cold, and dry to allow much farming. The mountains contain the bulk of North Korea's forest reserves while the foothills within and between the major agricultural regions provide lands for livestock grazing and fruit tree cultivation.

Major crops include rice and potatoes. 23.4% of North Korea's labor force worked in agriculture in 2012. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Communist countries in Asia

Other countries

North Korea in the news

4 November 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Ukraine says that its forces have engaged North Korean troops for the first time in Kursk Oblast, Russia. (The Independent)
31 October 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy strongly condemns the United States and European nations for making "zero response" to the Russian deployment of North Korean soldiers against Ukraine. (Reuters)
31 October 2024 – North Korean missile tests
North Korea launches an intercontinental ballistic missile on a "lofted trajectory" toward the Sea of Japan. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani says that this was the longest-ever launch of a North Korean ICBM, lasting 87 minutes, marking significant progress in range compared to previous tests. (Al Jazeera)
29 October 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Russia claims that it has taken the cities of Selydove and Hirnyk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, with open-source data indicating that Russian forces are advancing at their fastest pace in at least one year amid signs of North Korean involvement in the war. (Reuters)

Selected image - show another

Propaganda at Pyongyang Film Studios

Did you know (auto-generated)

More did you know

Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung

General images - show another

The following are images from various North Korea-related articles on Wikipedia.

North Korea topics

History Korean independence movement | Soviet Civil Administration | Provisional People's Committee for North Korea | Division of Korea | Korean War | Korean DMZ Conflict | North Korean famine
Politics Constitution | Government (President · Premier) | Leaders | Kim dynasty | Cabinet | Supreme People's Assembly | Judiciary | Elections | Political parties (Workers' Party of Korea · Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland) | Juche | Military | National Defence Commission | Nuclear weapons | Human rights | Foreign relations
Culture Arirang Festival | Education | Holidays | Propaganda | North–South differences in language | Religion | Sport in North Korea
Art Architecture | Cinema | Literature | Music | Opera
Economy Currency | Agriculture | Automotive industry | Energy | Mining | Teleсommunications | Tourism | Transportation (Pyongyang Metro)
Other Demographics

Things you can do

You are invited to participate in the North Korea working group of WikiProject Korea, a workgroup dedicated to developing and improving articles about North Korea.

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Web resources

Notes

Discover Wikipedia using portals

Purge server cache