Back Аҩадатәи Кореиа Abkhazian Korèa Utara ACE Noord-Korea Afrikaans Nordkorea ALS ስሜን ኮርያ Amharic Korea, north AMI Corea d'o Norte AN Norþcorea ANG उत्तर कोरिया ANP كوريا الشمالية Arabic
Democratic People's Republic of Korea | |
|---|---|
 Emblem
| |
| Motto: 강성대국 (English: Powerful and Prosperous Nation), | |
| Anthem: 애국가 (tr.: Aegukka) (English: Song of love for the country) | |
.svg) Territory controlled
Territory claimed but not controlled (South Korea) | |
| Capital and largest city | Pyongyang |
| Official languages | Korean |
| Official scripts | Chosŏn'gŭl |
| Ethnic groups | Korean |
| Demonym(s) | North Korean, Korean |
| Government | Unitary single-party socialist republic under a totalitarian hereditary dictatorship |
• Eternal leaders[a] | Kim Il-sung Kim Jong-il |
| Kim Jong-un[b] | |
| Choe Ryong-hae | |
• Premier | Kim Tok-hun |
| Legislature | Supreme People's Assembly |
| Establishment | |
| March 1, 1919 | |
| August 15, 1945 | |
• Formal declaration | September 9, 1948 |
| Area | |
• Total | 120,540 km2 (46,540 sq mi) (98th) |
• Water (%) | 4.19 |
| Population | |
• 2009 estimate | 24,051,218[2] (51st) |
• 2008 census | 24,052,231[3] |
• Density | 198.3/km2 (513.6/sq mi) (55th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2008[5] estimate |
• Total | $40 billion (94th) |
• Per capita | $1,900 (2009 est.)[4] (154th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2009[4] estimate |
• Total | $28.2 billion (88th) |
• Per capita | $1,244[6] (139th) |
| Currency | North Korean won (₩) (KPW) |
| Time zone | UTC+9 (Pyongyang Time) |
| Date format | yy, yyyy년 mm월 dd일 yy, yyyy/mm/dd (CE–1911, CE) |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | 850 |
| ISO 3166 code | KP |
| Internet TLD | .kp |
^ a. Kim Il-sung died 1994, named "Eternal President" in 1998. Kim Jong-Il died 2011, named "Eternal General Secretary" in 2012. ^ A 2009 constitutional amendment implicitly referred to Kim Jong-il as the "Supreme Leader",[7][8] as well as the "Chairman of the National Defence Commission". In 2011 Kim Jong-Un was named as the new "Supreme Leader of the party, state and army"[9] | |
North Korea (officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)) is a country in the northern part of the Korean peninsula. North Korea is next to China, Russia, and South Korea. The capital city of North Korea is Pyŏngyang, which is also the largest city.
The country was founded in 1948 after it had been freed from Japanese occupation, and a socialist state backed by the Soviet Union was established. The Republic of Korea is the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, and was occupied by the United States, and the U.S. set up a democracy in the south. At first, there was a war between the north and south which is called the Korean War, but while the fighting stopped in 1953, the war never officially ended. North Korea had ties with China and Russia but never was formally allied with either and became more isolated over time. Soon afterwards, the North's main trading partners the Soviet Union, collapsed. This left North Korea stranded and isolated. Throughout the 1990s, North Korea suffered from famines and natural disasters. As South Korea got richer, North Korea got poorer and life became worse there. Afterwards, things stabilized but continued to lag behind the South. Worldwide economic sanctions and embargoes are thought to have significantly impacted the quality of life in North Korea.
North Korea is described as a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship by western media, while North Korea describes itself as a democratic worker's state.[source?] The country's leader Kim Il-sung said that the government was following his own ideology of "Juche", which means "self-reliance". Later on, the country's leaders began to remove "communism" from North Korean laws and philosophy, although Juche can be described as a variant of communism. After Kim Il-sung died during the disasters of the 1990s, his son Kim Jong-il took his place and was promoted by the government as the leader who led North Korea out of the disasters. North Korea was the only communist country in history where leadership was directly given to the former leader's son after his death. This is called hereditary rule. Kim Jong-il enacted a new policy of "Songun", or "military-first", which turned the country into a military state. When he died in 2011, his youngest son Kim Jong-un took his place and continues to rule the country today.
- ↑ "Administrative Population and Divisions Figures (#26)" (PDF). DPRK: The Land of the Morning Calm. Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use. April 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-25. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
- ↑ (in Korean) UNFPA (2009-10-01). "한반도 인구 7천400만명 시대 임박". United Nations. Archived from the original on 2010-04-17. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ↑ "DPR Korea 2008 Population Census National Report" (PDF). Pyongyang: DPRK Central Bureau of Statistics. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-03-31. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Korea, North". The World Factbook. 2009. Archived from the original on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ↑ "Country Profile: North Korea". Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK. 2009-06-25. Archived from the original on 2009-11-07. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
- ↑ GDP (official exchange rate) Archived 2018-12-24 at the Wayback Machine, The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, last updated on April 26, 2010; accessed on May 17, 2010. Population data obtained from Total Midyear Population Archived 2013-10-12 at the Wayback Machine, U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base, accessed on May 17, 2010. Note: Per capita values were obtained by dividing the GDP (official exchange rate) data by the Population data.
- ↑ Choe, Sang-Hun (2009-09-28). "New North Korean Constitution Bolsters Kim's Power". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ↑ McGivering, Jill (2009-09-29). "N Korea constitution bolsters Kim". BBC. Archived from the original on 2019-12-24. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ↑ BBC News - "North Korea tells world to 'expect no change'" Archived 2019-06-18 at the Wayback Machine, 30 December 2011
- ↑ "Korea, North". The United Nations Human Development Report. 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-10-17. Retrieved 2009-10-09.