2. Introduction
• Korea, an independent monarchy for much of its long history, was invaded by Japan
in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese war; Japan officially annexed the whole peninsula
five years later.
• After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Korea was divided; the northern half was
occupied by the Soviet Union, and the southern half was occupied by the United
States.
• Following its failure to conquer the U.S.-backed Republic of Korea (ROK), or South
Korea, the southern portion of the peninsula, by means of force, North Korea, or the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), under the leadership of its founder
and first president Kim Il-sung, resorted to a policy of supposed diplomatic and
economic “self-reliance” as a check against outside influence.
• The DPRK portrayed the U.S. as the great danger to its social system by way of its
state-sponsored propaganda, and molded political, economic, and military policies
around the main political goal of eventual reunification of Korea under control of
Pyongyang.
• Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung’s son, was formally named his father’s successor in 1980,
and assumed an expanding political and executive position until the older Kim died
in 1994; the government of North Korea refers to him as “The Great Leader”, and
North Korea’s constitution additionally gives him the title of “Eternal President”.
• In September 2010, Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il’s son, was openly revealed as his
father’s successor; after Kim Jong-il died in December 2011, the régime assumed
actions to take approaches to allocate power to Kim Jong-un, who now exercises
many of the titles and responsibilities his late father exercised.
• The DPRK has depended greatly on international assistance to feed its starving
inhabitants since the mid-1990s, following years of financial misconduct and misuse
of resources.
• Even though the DPRK started a process of relaxing limits to permit mostly private
markets in 2002, it ended up recalling those reforms in 2005 and again in 2009.
4. Introduction (cont.)
• Of important concern to the international community are the North Korean
government’s use of regional military provocations, increase of military-related
items, long-range missile growth, WMD programs including tests of nuclear devices
in 2006, 2009, and 2013, and immense conventional armed forces.
• In 2013, the régime announced a new policy that called for the concurrent creation of
the country’s nuclear weapons program and its economy.
• In 2002, then-U.S. President George W. Bush used the label “axis of evil” to describe
North Korea and other countries he suspected were sponsoring terrorism, acquiring
WMDs, and developing nuclear weapons, including Iran and Iraq.
6. Geography
• Location: Eastern Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean
Peninsula, bordering the Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan, between China
and South Korea
• Geographic coordinates: 40 00 N, 127 00 E
• Area:
Total: 120,538 sq km
Country comparison to the world: 99
Land: 120,408 sq km
Water: 130 sq km
• Land boundaries:
Total: 1,672 km
Border countries: China 1,416 km, South Korea 238 km, Russia 18 km
• Coastline: 2,495 km
7. North Korea’s land utilization in 1972
• Natural resources: coal, lead, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite,
iron ore, copper, gold, pyrites, salt, fluorspar, hydropower
• Land use:
Arable land: 19.08%
Permanent crops: 1.7%
Other: 79.22% (2011)
• Irrigated land: 14,600 sq km (2003)
8. People and Society
• Nationality:
Noun: Korean(s)
Adjective: Korean
• Ethnic groups: racially identical, with a small Chinese community and a Japanese
minority
• Language(s): Korean
• Religion(s): mainly Buddhist and Confucianist; some Christian and syncretic
Ch'ŏndogyo (“Religion of the Heavenly Way”) – note: self-governing religious
activities are now all but nonexistent; government-sponsored religious groups exist
for the purpose of deception of religious freedom
• Population: 24,851,627 (July 2014 estimation) – country comparison to the world: 50
• Population growth rate: 0.53% (2014 estimation) – country comparison to the world:
153
• Birth rate: 14.51 births/1,000 population (2014 estimation) – country comparison to
the world: 138
• Death rate: 9.18 deaths/1,000 population (2014 estimation) – country comparison to
the world: 64
9. Government
• Official name: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
• Form of government: Juche single-party state
• Eternal Leader: Kim Il-sung
• Supreme Leader: Kim Jong-un
• Chairman of the Assembly Presidium: Kim Yong-nam
• Premier: Pak Pong-ju
• Legislature: Supreme People’s Assembly
• Capital: Pyongyang (geographic coordinates: 39 01 N, 125 45 E)
• Time difference: UTC +9 (fourteen hours ahead of Washington, D.C., during
Standard Time)
• Independence (from Japan): 15 August 1945
• National holiday: Founding of the DPRK, 9 September (1948)
• Constitution: previous 1948, 1972 (revised numerous times); most recent adopted
1998 (under Kim Jong-il); modified 2009, 2012
10. Economy
• GDP (purchasing power parity): $40 billion (2012 estimation; also 2010 and 2011
estimations) – country comparison to the world: 106
• Note: North Korea does not release reliable National Income Accounts data; the data
displayed here are obtained from purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP assessments
for North Korea that were made by Angus MADDISON in a study done for the
OECD; his figure for 1999 was generalized to 2011 using projected real growth rates
for North Korea's GDP and an increase factor based on the U.S. GDP deflator; the
results were estimated to the closest $10 billion.
• GDP (official exchange rate): $28 billion (2009 estimation)
• GDP – real growth rate: 1.3% (2012 estimation) – country comparison to the world:
167 (estimated -0.5% and 0.8% in 2010 and 2011, respectively)
• GDP – per capita (PPP): $1,800 (2011 estimation) – country comparison to the world:
198 (estimated $1,900 and $1,800 in 2009 and 2010, respectively; note: data are in
2011 U.S. dollars)
• GDP – composition, by sector of origin (2012 estimation): agriculture (23.4%),
industry (47.2%), services (29.4%)
• Agriculture – products: rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans, pulses, cattle, pigs, pork, eggs
• Industries: military products, machine building, electric power, chemicals, mining
(coal, iron ore, limestone, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and precious
metals), metallurgy, textiles, food processing, tourism
• Industrial production growth rate: 0.5% (2013 estimation) – country comparison to
the world: 157
13. Military
• Military branches: North Korean People's Army (Ground Forces, Navy, Air
Force, civil security forces, 2005)
• Military service age and obligation: Eighteen is assumed to be the legal
minimum age for obligatory military service; sixteen or seventeen is the
assumed legal minimum age for unpaid service (2012)
• Manpower available for military service:
Males age sixteen to 49: 6,515,279
Females age sixteen to 49: 6,418,693 (2010 estimation)
• Manpower fit for military service:
Males age sixteen to 49: 4,836,567
Females age sixteen to 49: 5,230,137 (2010 estimation)
• Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
Male: 207,737
Female: 204,553 (2010 estimation)
14. Transnational Issues
• Disputes – international:
Risking arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, tens of thousands of
North Koreans cross into China to evade starvation, economic poverty,
and political persecution; North Korea and China are in a dispute over
the sovereignty of certain islands in the Yalu and Tumen rivers;
Military Demarcation Line within the four-km-wide Demilitarized Zone
has isolated North Korea from South Korea since 1953; recurrent
episodes in the Yellow Sea with South Korea which claims the Northern
Limiting Line as a naval border; North Korea supports South Korea in
dismissing Japan's demand to Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima)
