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Travel to North Korea — Unbiased reviews
and great deals from TripAdvisorKorea, North
| Democratic People's Republic of Korea National name: Choson Minjujuui Inmin
Konghwaguk Head of State: Kim Jong
II (1994) Prime Minister: Kim
Yong-Il (2007)
Current government officials
Land area: 46,490 sq mi (120,409 sq km);
total area: 46,540 sq mi (120,540 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 23,479,089 (growth
rate: 0.7%); birth rate: 14.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 21.8/1000;
life expectancy: 72.2; density per sq km: 195
Capital and largest city (2003):
Pyongyang, 3,222,000 (metro. area),
2,767,900 Monetary unit: won
Language:
Korean
Ethnicity/race:
racially homogeneous; small Chinese community, a
few ethnic Japanese
Religions:
Buddhism and Confucianism; religious activities
almost nonexistent
National Holiday:
Founding of the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea, September 9 Literacy rate:
99% (1990 est.) Economic summary:
GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $40 billion note: North Korea does not
publish any reliable National Income Accounts data; the datum shown
here is derived from purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP estimates for
North Korea that were made by Angus MADDISON in a study conducted for
the OECD; his figure for 1999 was extrapolated to 2007 using estimated
real growth rates for North Korea's GDP and an inflation factor based
on the US GDP deflator; the result was rounded to the nearest $10
billion; per capita $1,900. Real growth rate: -1.1%.
Inflation: n.a. Unemployment: n.a. Arable land:
22.4% (2005). Agriculture: rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans,
pulses; cattle, pigs, pork, eggs. Labor force: 9.6 million;
agricultural 36%, nonagricultural 64%. Industries: military
products; machine building, electric power, chemicals; mining (coal,
iron ore, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and precious
metals), metallurgy; textiles, food processing; tourism. Natural
resources: coal, lead, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite, iron
ore, copper, gold, pyrites, salt, fluorspar, hydropower.
Exports: $1.466 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.): minerals,
metallurgical products, manufactures (including armaments), textiles,
fishery products. Imports: $2.879 billion c.i.f. (2006 est.):
petroleum, coking coal, machinery and equipment; textiles, grain.
Major trading partners: China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand
(2004). Communications: Telephones:
main lines in use: 980,000 (2003); mobile cellular: n.a. Radio
broadcast stations: AM 17, FM 14, shortwave 14 (2006).
Radios: 3.36 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 38 (1999). Televisions: 1.2 million (1997).
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 1 (2000). Internet
users: n.a. Transportation:
Railways: total: 5,235 km (2006). Highways: total: 25,554
km; paved: 724 km; unpaved: 24,830 km (2006). Waterways: 2,253
km; mostly navigable by small craft only. Ports and harbors:
Ch'ongjin, Haeju, Hungnam (Hamhung), Kimch'aek, Kosong, Najin, Namp'o,
Sinuiju, Songnim, Sonbong (formerly Unggi), Ungsang, Wonsan.
Airports: 77 (2007). International
disputes: with China, certain islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers are
in uncontested dispute; a section of boundary around Paektu-san
(mountain) is indefinite; China objects to illegal migration of North
Koreans into northern China; Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km
wide Demilitarized Zone has separated North from South Korea since
1953.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Korea is a 600-mile (966-km) peninsula jutting
out from Manchuria and China (and a small portion of the USSR). North
Korea occupies an area—slightly smaller than
Pennsylvania—north of the 38th parallel.
The country is almost completely covered by a
series of north-south mountain ranges separated by narrow valleys. The
Yalu River forms part of the northern border with Manchuria.
Government
Authoritarian socialist; one-man
dictatorship.
History
The ancient history of the Korean peninsula can
be traced to the Neolithic Age, when Turkic-Manchurian-Mongol peoples
migrated into the region from China. The first agriculturally based
settlements appeared around 6000 B.C. Some of
the larger communities of this era were established along the Han-gang
River near modern-day Seoul, others near Pyongyang and Pusan. According to
ancient lore, Korea's earliest civilization, known as Choson, was founded
in 2333 B.C. by Tan-gun.
In the 17th century, Korea became a vassal state
of China and was cut off from outside contact until the Sino-Japanese War
of 1894–1895. Following Japan's victory, Korea was granted
independence. By 1910, Korea had been annexed by Japan, which developed
the country but never won over the Korean nationalists, who continued to
agitate for independence.
After Japan's surrender at the conclusion of
World War II, the Korean peninsula was partitioned into two occupation
zones, divided at the 38th parallel. The USSR controlled the north, with
the U.S. taking charge of the south. In 1948, the division was made
permanent with the establishment of the separate regimes of North and
South Korea. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was
established on May 1, 1948, with Kim Il Sung as president.
Hoping to unify the Koreas under a single
Communist government, the North launched a surprise invasion of South
Korea on June 25, 1950. In the following days, the UN Security Council
condemned the attack and demanded an immediate withdrawal.
President Harry S. Truman ordered U.S. air and
naval units into action to enforce the UN order. The British government
followed suit, and soon a UN multinational command was set up to aid the
South Koreans.
The North Korean invaders swiftly seized Seoul
and surrounded the allied forces in the peninsula's southeast corner near
Pusan. In a desperate bid to reverse the military situation, UN Commander
Gen. Douglas MacArthur ordered an amphibious landing at Inchon on Sept. 15
and routed the North Korean army. MacArthur's forces pushed north across
the 38th parallel, approaching the Yalu River.
Prompted by this successful counteroffensive,
Communist China entered the war, forcing the UN troops into a headlong
retreat. Seoul was lost again, then regained. Ultimately, the war
stabilized near the 38th parallel but dragged on for two years while
negotiations took place. An armistice was agreed to on July 27, 1953.
Kim Il Sung's death on July 8, 1994, introduced
a period of uncertainty, as his son, Kim Jong Il, assumed the leadership
mantle. Negotiations over the country's suspected possession of atomic
weapons dragged on, but an agreement was reached in June 1995 that
included a provision for providing the North with a South Korean nuclear
reactor.
The nuclear standoffs that characterized the
mid-1990s were overshadowed when famine struck the nation's 24 million
inhabitants in 1998 and 1999. Two years of floods had been followed by
severe droughts in 1997 and 1998, causing devastating crop failures.
Because of a lack of fuel and machinery parts, and weather conditions that
encouraged parasites, only 10% of North Korea's rice fields could be
worked. The staggering food crisis necessitated foreign aid. In the fall
of 1999, the severe famine, which claimed an estimated 2 million to 3
million lives, had begun to wane. Malnutrition and hunger, however,
continued to plague North Korea into the mid-2000s. Thousands have
attempted to flee to China or South Korea, and only few have evaded
capture. Those who do not escape face torture or execution.
North Korea, one of the world's most secretive
societies, has been accused of egregious human-rights violations,
including summary executions, torture, inhumane conditions in prison
camps, which hold up to 200,000 prisoners, and denial of freedom of
expression and movement. Access to the country is strictly limited and
North Korea's domestic media is tightly controlled, making it difficult to
substantiate the accusations. Some nongovernmental organizations, however,
such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have spoken to North
Korean refugees who have experienced such persecution.
In Sept. 1998, North Korea launched a test
missile over Japan, claiming it was simply a scientific satellite, raising
suspicions regarding North Korea's nuclear intentions. In 1999, North
Korea agreed to allow the United States to conduct ongoing inspections of
a suspected nuclear development site, Kumchangri. In exchange, the U.S.
would increase food aid and initiate a program for bringing potato
production to the country.
Tension with South Korea eased dramatically in
June 2000, when South Korea's president, Kim Dae Jung, met with North
Korea's President Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. The summit marked the
first-ever meeting of the two countries' leaders. But efforts toward
reconciliation fizzled thereafter.
In Jan. 2002, President Bush described North
Korea as part of an “axis of evil.” Such open hostility marked
a dramatic shift in U.S. policy toward North Korea from the Clinton
administration's policy of engagement.
North Korea stunned the world in late 2002 with
two admissions. In September, the government acknowledged that it had
kidnapped about a dozen Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s for the purposes
of training North Korean spies. In October, confronted with U.S.
intelligence, North Korea admitted that it had violated a 1994 agreement
freezing its nuclear-weapons program and had in fact been developing
nuclear bombs. Since 2002, North Korea has vacillated between affirming
and denying that it already has nuclear weapons.
In late December 2002, North Korea expelled UN
weapons inspectors from the country, and in January 2003 it announced it
was officially withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT). In July, North Korean officials reported that the country had
reprocessed enough plutonium to build six nuclear bombs. Kim has regularly
used threats and hostile acts to try to wring aid from the international
community, but it was difficult to decipher how he expected to accomplish
his aims—economic aid and a safeguard against U.S.
attack—through such brinkmanship. Refusing to bow to North Korea's
demands, the United States informed the nation's diplomats that it would
not begin to negotiate until North Korea first dismantled its nuclear
program. China took on the role of mediator between North Korea and the
U.S., urging less inflexibility on both sides. Meetings between officials
from the U.S., North Korea, China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan in 2003,
2004, and 2005 ended in deadlock.
In July 2006, North Korea launched seven
missiles—the long-range Taepodong-2 missile (which failed) and six
medium-range ones—roiling its neighbors and much of the rest of the
world. It was North Korea's first major weapons test in eight years. North
Korea again sparked international outrage in October, when it tested a
nuclear weapon. President Bush called the test a “threat to
international peace and security” and called for sanctions against
North Korea.
A breakthrough was finally reached in February
2007, when North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear facilities and
allow international inspectors to enter the country in exchange for about
$400 million in oil and aid. In July, the country followed up on the
February agreement, shutting down its weapons-making nuclear reactor at
Yongbyon. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency verified
the move. North Korea went a step further in October, announcing it would
disable its nuclear facilities and disclose to international monitors an
accounting of all of its nuclear programs by the end of 2007. It failed,
however, to make the disclosure.
In April 2007, parliament fired Prime Minister
Hong Song Nam and named former army and navy minister Kim Yong-Il as his
successor.
For the first time in 56 years, trains passed
between North and South Korea in May 2007. While the event was mostly
symbolic, it was considered an important step toward reconciliation. South
Korea hopes that eventually a trans-Korean railroad will provide easier
access to other parts of Asia. Given North Korea's failing infrastructure,
such a railroad, however, is years away from becoming a reality.
In October 2007, Kim Jong Il and South Korean
president Roh Moo Hyun met for their second ever inter-Korean summit. The
leaders forged a deal to work together on several economic projects and
agreed to move toward signing a treaty that would formally end the Korean
War.
The New York Philharmonic played a concert in
Pyongyang in February 2008. It was the first time an American cultural
group performed in the country and the largest American delegation to
visit North Korea since the Korean War. The orchestra played pieces by
Dvorak, Gershwin, and Wagner, as well as the "Star-Spangled Banner" and a
traditional Korean folk song.
Hopes for an eventual denuclearized North Korea
were raised again in May 2008, when the country turned over to U.S.
officials about 18,000 pages of documents detailing its efforts in 1990,
2003, and 2005 to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons. It did not,
however, hand over information on its uranium program and its efforts to
sell nuclear material. The country went further in June, when it turned
over to China a list of its nuclear facilities as well as information on
the amount of reprocessed plutonium in its possession and destroyed a
cooling tower at its main reactor in Yongbyon. The U.S. in turn said it
would remove North Korea from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism
and lifted some sanctions against the country. In July, the U.S., China,
North Korea, South Korea, Russia, and Japan announced another deal that
will have international inspectors visiting North Korea's nuclear
facilities to confirm that it has shut down its main processing facility
at Yongbyon. In return, North Korea will receive financial and energy
assistance.
The progress reached in the summer toward denuclearizing North Korea
seemed to have ground to a halt by September as officials said they
planned to restart the plutonium reprocessing plant at Yongbyon and banned
UN inspectors from the plant. The move followed complaints by North Korean
officials that the U.S. had not removed the country from its list of
countries that sponsor terrorism and reports that President Kim had
suffered a debilitating stroke, leaving many to wonder who is calling the
shots in the reclusive country. The diplomatic roller coaster continued
its unpredictable course in October, when the U.S. State Department
removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after
North Korea agreed to give international inspectors access to its nuclear
plant at Yonbyon and to continue disabling its plutonium-processing
facility.
See also Encyclopedia: Korea.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
North Korea
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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