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North Korea: the story on HearLore | HearLore
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, occupies the northern half of the Korean Peninsula, a landmass that has been inhabited since the Lower Paleolithic period. The country's borders are defined by the Yalu and Tumen rivers to the north, where it meets China and Russia, and the Korean Demilitarized Zone to the south, which separates it from its southern neighbor. Pyongyang serves as the capital and largest city, standing as the heart of a nation that claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire Korean Peninsula. The history of this region stretches back to the early 7th century BCE, when the first kingdom was noted in Chinese records. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea into Silla and Balhae in the late 7th century, the peninsula was ruled by the Goryeo dynasty from 918 to 1392 and the Joseon dynasty from 1392 to 1897. The Korean Empire, which succeeded the Joseon dynasty, was annexed by the Empire of Japan in 1910. 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 North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950 started the Korean War. In 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire and established a demilitarized zone, 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 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 a communist state that self-designates as an independent socialist state which holds democratic elections; however, outside observers have described the elections as unfair, uncompetitive, and pre-determined. The Workers' Party of Korea is the sole 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. The country 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, the G77, and the ASEAN Regional Forum.
The official name of North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. This name was adopted when the state was established on the 10th of July 1948.
When was North Korea founded?
North Korea was founded on the 10th of July 1948 when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established. This occurred after the division of the Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel following World War II.
Who is the current leader of North Korea?
Kim Jong Un is the current leader of North Korea. He was announced as the successor to his father Kim Jong Il on the 17th of December 2011 after Kim Jong Il died from a heart attack.
How many nuclear weapons does North Korea possess?
Estimates suggest that North Korea possesses 50 nuclear warheads. The country conducted its first nuclear weapons test on the 9th of October 2006 and continues to develop its arsenal.
What is the capital city of North Korea?
Pyongyang serves as the capital and largest city of North Korea. It is located in the western part of the country and has been a stronghold of Christianity since the late 19th century.
When did the Korean War end?
The Korean War ended on the 27th of July 1953 with the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement. No formal peace treaty has ever been signed to officially end the conflict.
The origins of North Korea are deeply rooted in a complex tapestry of mythology and historical revisionism that distinguishes it from its southern counterpart. According to Korean mythology, the Gojoseon Kingdom was established by the god-king Dangun in 2333 BC, a narrative that has been revived as an extreme manifestation of nationalism and the family cult. While most professional historians treat Dangun as a mythological figure, North Korean textbooks and state propaganda elevate him to the status of a historical founder, using his story to legitimize the current regime's claim to ancient sovereignty. The location of the Lelang Commandery, established by the Han dynasty in 108 BCE, has become a point of intense controversy. North Korean historians have denied that the Lelang district was centered in Korea, placing it instead northwest of the peninsula, possibly near Beijing, to de-emphasize China's influence on ancient Korean history. This historiographical stance is a deliberate attempt to counter Japanese colonial theories concerning the dependency of Korean civilization on China. The site of Lelang and surrounding ancient Han Chinese remains are situated in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, yet North Korean scholars have interpreted them as manifestations of the Kochoson or the Koguryo kingdom. The linguistic homeland of Proto-Koreans is located somewhere in southern Siberia or Manchuria, such as the Liao River area or the Amur River area, and Proto-Koreans arrived in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC, replacing and assimilating Japonic-speakers. The Three Kingdoms of Korea emerged from the states of Buyeo, Okjeo, Dongye, and Samhan, with Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla becoming the dominant powers. Goguryeo, the largest and most powerful among them, was a highly militaristic state that competed with various Chinese dynasties during its 700 years of history. Goguryeo experienced a golden age under Gwanggaeto the Great and his son Jangsu, who both subdued Baekje and Silla during their respective reigns, achieving a brief unification of the Three Kingdoms and becoming the most dominant power on the Korean Peninsula. In 676, the unification of the Three Kingdoms by Silla led to the Northern and Southern States period, in which Balhae controlled the northern parts of Goguryeo, and much of the Korean Peninsula was controlled by Later Silla. Balhae was founded by a Goguryeo general and formed as a successor state to Goguryeo. During its height, Balhae controlled most of Manchuria and parts of the Russian Far East and was called the Prosperous Country in the East. In 936, the Later Three Kingdoms were united by Wang Geon, who established Goryeo as the successor state of Goguryeo. Balhae had fallen to the Khitan Empire in 926, and a decade later the last crown prince of Balhae fled south to Goryeo, where he was warmly welcomed and included in the ruling family by Wang Geon, thus unifying the two successor nations of Goguryeo. Like Silla, Goryeo was a highly cultural state, and invented the metal movable type printing press. After defeating the Khitan Empire, which was the most powerful empire of its time, in the Goryeo, Khitan War, Goryeo experienced a golden age that lasted a century, during which the Tripitaka Koreana was completed and significant developments in printing and publishing occurred. By 1100, there were 12 universities that produced notable scholars. However, the Mongol invasions in the 13th century greatly weakened the kingdom. Goryeo was never conquered by the Mongols, but exhausted after three decades of fighting, the Korean court sent its crown prince to the Yuan capital to swear allegiance to Kublai Khan, who accepted and married one of his daughters to the Korean crown prince. Henceforth, Goryeo continued to rule Korea, though as a tributary ally to the Mongols for the next 86 years. During this period, the two nations became intertwined as all subsequent Korean kings married Mongol princesses, and the last empress of the Yuan dynasty was a Korean princess. In the mid-14th century, Goryeo drove out the Mongols to regain its northern territories, briefly conquered Liaoyang, and defeated invasions by the Red Turbans. However, in 1392, General Yi Seong-gye, who had been ordered to attack China, turned his army around and staged a coup. Yi Seong-gye declared the new name of Korea as Joseon in reference to Gojoseon, and moved the capital to Hanseong, one of the old names of Seoul. The first 200 years of the Joseon dynasty were marked by peace and saw great advancements in science and education, as well as the creation of Hangul by Sejong the Great to promote literacy among the common people. The prevailing ideology of the time was Neo-Confucianism, which was epitomized by the seonbi class: nobles who passed up positions of wealth and power to lead lives of study and integrity. Between 1592 and 1598, Japan under Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched invasions of Korea, but the advance was halted by Korean forces, most notably the Joseon Navy led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin and his renowned turtle ship, with assistance from righteous army militias formed by Korean civilians, and Ming dynasty Chinese troops. Yi's successes gave Korea complete control of the sea lanes around the peninsula, and the Korean navy was able to intercept most of the supplies and communications between Japan and Korea. Through a series of successful battles of attrition, the Japanese forces were eventually forced to withdraw, and relations between all parties became normalized. However, the Manchus took advantage of Joseon's war-weakened state and invaded in 1627 and 1637 and then went on to conquer the destabilized Ming dynasty. After normalizing relations with the new Qing dynasty, Joseon experienced a nearly 200-year period of peace. Kings Yeongjo and Jeongjo particularly led a new renaissance of the Joseon dynasty during the 18th century. In the 19th century, Joseon began experiencing economic difficulties and widespread uprisings, including the Donghak Peasant Revolution. The royal in-law families had gained control of the government, leading to mass corruption and weakening of the state. In addition, the strict isolationism of the Joseon government that earned it the hermit kingdom became increasingly ineffective due to increasing encroachment from powers such as Japan, Russia, and the United States. This is exemplified by the Joseon, United States Treaty of 1882, in which it was compelled to open its borders. In the late 19th century, Japan became a significant regional power after winning the First Sino-Japanese War against Qing China and the Russo-Japanese War against the Russian Empire. In 1897, King Gojong, the last king of Korea, proclaimed Joseon as the Korean Empire. However, Japan compelled Korea to become its protectorate in 1905 and formally annexed it in 1910. From 1910 to the end of World War II in 1945, Korea was under Japanese rule. What followed was a period of forced assimilation, in which Korean language, culture, and history were suppressed. This led to the March First Movement protests in 1919 and the subsequent foundation of resistance groups in exile, primarily in China. Among the resistance groups was the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. During the Japanese colonial period, most Koreans were peasants engaged in subsistence farming. In the 1930s, Japan developed mines, hydro-electric dams, steel mills, and manufacturing plants in northern Korea and neighboring Manchuria. The Korean industrial working class expanded rapidly, and many Koreans went to work in Manchuria. As a result, 65% of Korea's heavy industry was located in the north, but, due to the rugged terrain, only 37% of its agriculture. Due to its rule by Japan, northern Korea had little exposure to modern, Western ideas. One partial exception was the penetration of religion. Since the arrival of missionaries in the late nineteenth century, the northwest of Korea, and Pyongyang in particular, had been a stronghold of Christianity. As a result, Pyongyang was called the Jerusalem of the East. A Korean guerrilla movement emerged in the mountainous interior and in Manchuria, harassing the Japanese imperial authorities. One of the most prominent guerrilla leaders was the Communist Kim Il Sung.
The Division and The War
Towards the end of World War II, the U.S. proposed dividing the Korean peninsula into two occupation zones: a U.S. zone and a Soviet zone. Dean Rusk and Charles H. Bonesteel III suggested the 38th parallel as the dividing line, as it placed Seoul under U.S. control. To the Americans' surprise, the Soviets accepted their proposal and agreed to divide Korea at that line. After the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945, the Korean Peninsula was divided into two occupation zones along the 38th parallel, with the northern half of the peninsula occupied by the Soviet Union and the southern half by the United States. Negotiations on reunification failed. Soviet general Terentii Shtykov recommended the establishment of the Soviet Civil Administration in October 1945, and supported Kim Il Sung as chairman of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea, established in February 1946. In September 1946, South Korean citizens rose up against the Allied Military Government. In April 1948, an uprising of the Jeju islanders was violently crushed. The South declared its statehood in May 1948 and two months later the ardent anti-communist Syngman Rhee became its ruler. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in the North on the 10th of July 1948. Shtykov served as the first Soviet ambassador, while Kim Il Sung became premier. Soviet forces withdrew from the North in 1948, and most American forces withdrew from the South in 1949. Ambassador Shtykov suspected Rhee was planning to invade the North and was sympathetic to Kim's goal of Korean unification under socialism. The two successfully lobbied Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to support a quick war against the South, which culminated in the outbreak of the Korean War. The military of North Korea invaded the South on the 25th of June 1950, and swiftly overran most of the country. The United Nations Command was subsequently established following the UN Security Council's recognition of North Korean aggression against South Korea. The motion passed because the Soviet Union, a close ally of North Korea and a member of the UN Security Council, was boycotting the UN over its recognition of the Republic of China rather than the People's Republic of China. The UNC, led by the United States, intervened to defend the South, and rapidly advanced into North Korea. As they neared the border with China, Chinese forces intervened on behalf of North Korea, shifting the balance of the war again. Fighting ended on the 27th of July 1953, with an armistice that approximately restored the original boundaries between North and South Korea, but no peace treaty was signed. Approximately 3 million people died in the Korean War, with a higher proportional civilian death toll than World War II or the Vietnam War. In both per capita and absolute terms, North Korea was the country most devastated by the war, which resulted in the death of an estimated 12, 15% of the North Korean population, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II. As a result of the war, almost every substantial building in North Korea was destroyed. Some have referred to the conflict as a civil war, with other factors involved. A heavily guarded demilitarized zone still divides the peninsula, and an anti-communist and anti-North Korea sentiment remains in South Korea. Since the war, the United States has maintained a strong military presence in the South which is depicted by the North Korean government as an imperialist occupation force. It claims that the Korean War was caused by the United States and South Korea. The post-war 1950s and 1960s saw an ideological shift in North Korea, as Kim Il Sung sought to consolidate his power. Kim Il Sung was highly critical of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and his de-Stalinization policies and critiqued Khrushchev as revisionist. During the 1956 August Faction Incident, Kim Il Sung successfully resisted efforts by the Soviet Union and China to depose him in favor of Soviet Koreans or the pro-Chinese Yan'an faction. Some scholars believe that the 1956 August incident was an example of North Korea demonstrating political independence. However, most scholars consider the final withdrawal of Chinese troops from North Korea in October 1958 to be the latest date when North Korea became effectively independent. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, North Korea sought to distinguish itself internationally by becoming a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement and promoting the ideology of Juche. In United States policymaking, North Korea was considered among the Captive Nations. Despite its efforts to break out of the Soviet and Chinese spheres of influence, North Korea remained closely aligned with both countries throughout the Cold War. Industry was the favored sector in North Korea. Industrial production returned to pre-war levels by 1957. In 1959, relations with Japan had improved somewhat, and North Korea began allowing the repatriation of Japanese citizens in the country. The same year, North Korea revalued the North Korean won, which held greater value than its South Korean counterpart. Until the 1960s, economic growth was higher than in South Korea, and North Korean GDP per capita was equal to that of its southern neighbor as late as 1976. However, by the 1980s, the economy had begun to stagnate; it started its long decline in 1987 and almost completely collapsed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, when all Soviet aid was suddenly halted. An internal CIA study acknowledged various achievements of the North Korean government post-war: compassionate care for war orphans and children in general, a radical improvement in the status of women, free housing, free healthcare, and health statistics particularly in life expectancy and infant mortality that were comparable to even the most advanced nations up until the North Korean famine. Life expectancy in the North was 72 before the famine which was only marginally lower than in the South. The country once boasted a comparatively developed healthcare system; pre-famine North Korea had a network of nearly 45,000 family practitioners with some 800 hospitals and 1,000 clinics. The relative peace between the North and South following the armistice was interrupted by border skirmishes, celebrity abductions, and assassination attempts. The North failed in several assassination attempts on South Korean leaders, such as in 1968, 1974, and the Rangoon bombing in 1983; tunnels were found under the DMZ and tensions flared over the axe murder incident at Panmunjom in 1976. For almost two decades after the war, the two states did not seek to negotiate with one another. In 1971, secret, high-level contacts began to be conducted culminating in the 1972 July 4 South, North Joint Statement that established principles of working toward peaceful reunification. The talks ultimately failed because in 1973, South Korea declared its preference that the two Koreas should seek separate memberships in international organizations.
The Famine and The Nuclear Shadow
The Soviet Union was dissolved on the 26th of December 1991, ending its aid and support to North Korea. In 1992, as Kim Il Sung's health began deteriorating, his son Kim Jong Il slowly began taking over various state tasks. Kim Il Sung died of a heart attack in 1994; Kim Jong Il declared a three-year period of national mourning, afterward officially announcing his position as the new leader. Flooding in the mid-1990s exacerbated the economic crisis, severely damaging crops and infrastructure and leading to widespread famine that the government proved incapable of curtailing, resulting in the deaths of between 240,000 and 420,000 people and leading to the flight of many North Koreans into China, South Korea and neighboring countries. In China, these illegal North Korea child immigrants are called the Kotjebi. In 1996, the government accepted UN food aid. North Korea promised to halt its development of nuclear weapons under the Agreed Framework, signed in 1994. South Korea began to engage with the North as part of its Sunshine Policy. Kim Jong Il instituted a policy called Songun, or military first. The international environment changed once George W. Bush became U.S. President in 2001, whose administration rejected South Korea's Sunshine Policy and the Agreed Framework. Bush included North Korea in his axis of evil in his 2002 State of the Union Address. The U.S. government accordingly treated North Korea as a rogue state, while North Korea redoubled its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. On the 9th of October 2006, North Korea announced it had conducted its first nuclear weapons test. Tensions with South Korea and the United States increased in 2010 with the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan and North Korea's bombardment of Yeonpyeongdo. On the 17th of December 2011, Kim Jong Il died from a heart attack. His youngest son Kim Jong Un was announced as his successor. In the face of international condemnation, North Korea continued to develop its nuclear arsenal, possibly including a hydrogen bomb and a missile capable of reaching the United States. Throughout 2017, following Donald Trump's ascension to the US presidency, relations between the United States and North Korea worsened, and there was a period of heightened tension between the two countries. The tensions substantially decreased in 2018, and a détente developed. A series of summits took place between North Korea, South Korea and the United States, though the talks ultimately broke down. On the 30th of December 2023, Kim Jong Un marked a significant departure from the longstanding position of mutual claims over the entire Korean Peninsula by both North and South Korea. In 2024, North Korea deployed a contingent of troops to Russia in support of the Russo-Ukrainian war. North Korea occupies the northern portion of the Korean Peninsula, lying between latitudes 37° and 43°N, and longitudes 124° and 131°E. It covers an area of 120,540 square kilometers. To its west are the Yellow Sea and Korea Bay, and to its east lies Japan across the Sea of Japan. 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 percent of North Korea is composed of mountains and uplands, separated by deep and narrow valleys. All of the Korean Peninsula's mountains with elevations of 1,000 meters or more are located in North Korea. The highest point in North Korea is Paektu Mountain, a volcanic mountain with an elevation of 2,744 meters above sea level. Considered a sacred place by North Koreans, Mount Paektu holds significance in Korean culture and has been incorporated in the elaborate folklore and personality cult around the Kim family. For example, the song, We Will Go To Mount Paektu, sings in praise of Kim Jong Un and describes a symbolic trek to the mountain. Other prominent ranges are the Hamgyong Range in the extreme northeast and the Rangrim Mountains, which are located in the north-central part of North Korea. Mount Kumgang in the Taebaek Range, which extends into South Korea, is famous for its scenic beauty. 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. According to a United Nations Environmental Programme report in 2003, forest covers over 70 percent of the country, mostly on steep slopes. North Korea had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.02/10, ranking it 28th globally out of 172 countries. The longest river is the Amnok, or Yalu, River which flows for 790 kilometers. The country contains three terrestrial ecoregions: Central Korean deciduous forests, Changbai Mountains mixed forests, and Manchurian mixed forests. North Korea experiences a humid continental climate within the Köppen climate classification scheme. Winters bring clear weather interspersed with snow storms as a result of northern and northwestern winds that blow from Siberia. Summer tends to be by far the hottest, most humid, and rainiest time of year because of the southern and southeastern monsoon winds that carry moist air from the Pacific Ocean. Approximately 60 percent of all precipitation occurs from June to September. Spring and autumn are transitional seasons between summer and winter. The daily average high and low temperatures for Pyongyang are 10.5°C and -10.5°C in January and 25.5°C and 18.5°C in August.
The Machinery of Control
The state of human rights in North Korea has been widely condemned. A 2014 UN inquiry into the DPRK's human rights record found evidence for systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations and stated that the gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world, with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch holding similar views. The UN inquiry has accused North Korea of crimes against humanity. North Koreans have been referred to as some of the world's most brutalized people by Human Rights Watch, because of the severe restrictions placed on their political and economic freedoms. There are restrictions on the freedom of association, expression and movement; arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment result in death and execution. Citizens in North Korea are generally not permitted to leave the country at will and its government denies access to UN human rights observers. The Ministry of State Security extrajudicially apprehends and imprisons those accused of political crimes without due process. People perceived as hostile to the government, such as Christians or critics of the leadership, are deported to labor camps without trial, often with their whole family and mostly without any chance of being released. Forced labor is part of an established system of political repression. Based on satellite images and defector testimonies, an estimated 200,000 prisoners are held in six large prison camps, where they are made to work to right their wrongdoings. Supporters of the government who deviate from the government line are subject to reeducation in sections of labor camps set aside for that purpose. Those who are deemed politically rehabilitated may reassume responsible government positions on their release. The International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea estimates that over 10,000 people die in North Korean prison camps every year. The North Korean population is strictly managed by the state and all aspects of daily life are subordinated to party and state planning. According to US government reports, employment is managed by the party on the basis of political reliability, and travel is tightly controlled by the Ministry of People's Security. The US State Department says that North Koreans do not have a choice in the jobs they work and are not free to change jobs at will. With 1,100,000 people in modern slavery, North Korea is ranked highest in the world in terms of the percentage of population in modern slavery, with 10.4 percent enslaved according to the Walk Free's 2018 Global Slavery Index. North Korea is the only country in the world that has not explicitly criminalized some form of modern slavery. A United Nations report listed slavery among the crimes against humanity occurring in North Korea. According to the US State Department, the North Korean government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. North Korea has trafficked thousands of its own citizens allegedly as forced laborers to other countries, where most of the laborers' earnings are pocketed by Pyongyang. The North Korean government rejects the human rights abuse claims, calling them a smear campaign and a human rights racket made to topple the government. In a 2014 report to the UN, North Korea dismissed accusations of atrocities as wild rumors. The government, however, admitted some human rights issues related to living conditions and stated that it is working to improve them. North Korea has maintained one of the most closed and centralized economies in the world since the 1940s. For several decades, it followed the Soviet pattern of five-year plans with the ultimate goal of achieving self-sufficiency. Extensive Soviet and Chinese support allowed North Korea to rapidly recover from the Korean War and register very high growth rates. Systematic inefficiency began to arise around 1960, when the economy shifted from the extensive to the intensive development stage. The shortage of skilled labor, energy, arable land and transportation significantly impeded long-term growth and resulted in consistent failure to meet planning objectives. The major slowdown of the economy contrasted with South Korea, which surpassed the North in terms of absolute GDP and per capita income by the 1980s. North Korea declared the last seven-year plan unsuccessful in December 1993 and thereafter stopped announcing plans. The loss of Eastern Bloc trading partners and a series of natural disasters throughout the 1990s caused severe hardships, including widespread famine. By 2000, the situation improved owing to a massive international food assistance effort, but the economy continues to suffer from food shortages, dilapidated infrastructure and a critically low energy supply. In an attempt to recover from the collapse, the government began structural reforms in 1998 that formally legalized private ownership of assets and decentralized control over production. A second round of reforms in 2002 led to an expansion of market activities, partial monetization, flexible prices and salaries, and the introduction of incentives and accountability techniques. Despite these changes, North Korea remains a command economy where the state owns almost all means of production and development priorities are defined by the government. North Korea has the structural profile of a relatively industrialized country where nearly half of the gross domestic product is generated by industry and human development is at medium levels. Purchasing power parity GDP is estimated at $40 billion, with a very low per capita value of $1,800. In 2024, gross national income per capita was $1,261, compared to $36,760 in South Korea. The North Korean won is the national currency, issued by the Central Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The economy has been developing dramatically in recent years despite sanctions. The Sejong Institute describes these changes as astonishing. Foreign trade surpassed pre-crisis levels in 2005 and but has been hampered by international sanctions. China is the biggest trading partner of North Korea, accounting for more than 74% of exports and 97% of imports. The economy is heavily nationalized. Food and housing are extensively subsidized by the state; education and healthcare are free; and the payment of taxes was officially abolished in 1974. A variety of goods are available in department stores and supermarkets in Pyongyang, though most of the population relies on small-scale jangmadang markets. In 2009, the government attempted to stem the expanding free market by banning jangmadang and the use of foreign currency, but the ban was largely ineffective. The North Korean armed forces, or the Korean People's Army, is estimated to comprise 1,280,000 active and 6,300,000 reserve and paramilitary troops, making it one of the largest military institutions in the world. With an active duty army consisting of 1.28 million soldiers, North Korea maintains the fourth largest active military force in the world behind China, India and the United States. About 20 percent of men aged 17, 54 serve in the regular armed forces, and approximately one in every 25 citizens is an enlisted soldier. The KPA is divided into five branches: Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Special Operations Force, and Strategic Force. Command of the KPA lies in both the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea and the State Affairs Commission, which controls the Ministry of Defence. Of all the KPA's branches, the Ground Force is the largest, comprising approximately one million personnel, while the Navy operates the largest submarine fleet in the world. The KPA's Special Operation Force is also the world's largest special forces unit. North Korea is a nuclear-armed state, though the nature and strength of the country's arsenal is uncertain. Estimates of North Korea were estimated to possess 50 nuclear warheads. Delivery capabilities are provided by the Rocket Force, which has ballistic missiles with a range of up to 15,000 kilometers. As a result of its nuclear and missile tests, North Korea has been sanctioned under multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. According to a 2004 South Korean assessment, North Korea also possesses a stockpile of chemical weapons, as well as the ability to cultivate and produce biological weapons. The sale of weapons to North Korea by other states is prohibited by UN sanctions, and the KPA's conventional capabilities are limited by a number of factors including obsolete equipment, insufficient fuel supplies and a shortage of digital command and control assets. To compensate for these deficiencies, the KPA has deployed a wide range of asymmetric warfare technologies including anti-personnel blinding lasers, GPS jammers, midget submarines and human torpedoes, stealth paint, and cyberwarfare units. In 2015, North Korea was reported to employ 6,000 sophisticated computer security personnel in a cyberwarfare unit operating out of China. KPA units were blamed for the 2014 Sony Pictures hack. Much of the equipment in use by the KPA is engineered and manufactured by the domestic defense industry. Weapons are manufactured in roughly 1,800 underground defense industry plants scattered throughout the country, most of them located in Chagang Province. The defense industry is capable of producing a full range of weapons, and may even have limited jet aircraft manufacturing capacity. According to North Korean state media, military expenditure amounted to 15.8 percent of the state budget in 2010. The U.S. State Department has estimated that North Korea's military spending averaged 23% of its GDP from 2004 to 2014, the highest level in the world. North Korea, like its southern counterpart, claims to be the legitimate government of the entire Korean Peninsula and adjacent islands. North Korea joined the United Nations in 1991 together with South Korea. North Korea is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, G77 and the ASEAN Regional Forum. North Korea had diplomatic relations with 166 countries and embassies in 47 countries. North Korea does not have diplomatic relations with Argentina, Botswana, Estonia, France, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, the United States, and Ukraine. As a result of its isolation, North Korea is sometimes known as the hermit kingdom, a term that originally referred to the isolationism in the latter part of the Joseon period. Initially, North Korea had diplomatic ties only with other communist countries, and even today, most of the foreign embassies accredited to North Korea are located in Beijing rather than in Pyongyang. In the 1960s and 1970s, it pursued an independent foreign policy, established relations with many developing countries, and joined the Non-Aligned Movement. In the late 1980s and the 1990s its foreign policy was thrown into turmoil with the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. Suffering an economic crisis, it closed a number of its embassies. At the same time, North Korea sought to build relations with developed free market countries. North Korea enjoys a close relationship with China which is often called North Korea's closest ally, and the two countries maintain a defense agreement. However, relations have sometimes been strained because of China's concerns about North Korea's nuclear program. North Korea has a close relationship with Russia and has voiced support for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the two countries signed a defense agreement in 2024. North Korea continues to have strong ties with several Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Relations with Malaysia were strained in 2017 by the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. The kidnapping of at least 13 Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and the 1980s has had a detrimental effect on North Korea's relationship with Japan. The Korean Demilitarized Zone with South Korea remains the most heavily fortified border in the world. Inter-Korean relations are at the core of North Korean diplomacy and have seen numerous shifts in the last few decades. In 1972, the two Koreas agreed in principle to achieve reunification through peaceful means and without foreign interference. On the 10th of October 1980, the then North Korean leader Kim Il Sung proposed a federation between North and South Korea in which the respective political systems would initially remain. However, relations remained cool well until the early 1990s, with a brief period in the early 1980s when North Korea offered to provide flood relief to its southern neighbor. Although the offer was initially welcomed, talks over how to deliver the relief goods broke down and none of the promised aid ever crossed the border. Koreans disagree on aid by North. The two countries also organized a reunion of
The Human Cost of Isolation
92 separated families. The Sunshine Policy instituted by South Korean president Kim Dae-jung in 1998 was a watershed in inter-Korean relations. It encouraged other countries to engage with the North, which allowed Pyongyang to normalize relations with a number of European Union states and contributed to the establishment of joint North-South economic projects. The culmination of the Sunshine Policy was the 2000 inter-Korean summit, when Kim Dae-jung visited Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang. Both North and South Korea signed the June 15th North, South Joint Declaration, in which both sides promised to seek peaceful reunification. On the 4th of October 2007, South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong Il signed an eight-point peace agreement. However, relations worsened when South Korean president Lee Myung-bak adopted a more hard-line approach and suspended aid deliveries pending the de-nuclearization of the North. In 2009, North Korea responded by ending all of its previous agreements with the South. The next few years witnessed a string of hostilities, including the alleged North Korean involvement in the sinking of South Korean warship Cheonan, mutual ending of diplomatic talks, and North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeongdo. In May 2017, Moon Jae-in was elected president of South Korea with a promise to return to the Sunshine Policy. In February 2018, a détente developed at the Winter Olympics held in South Korea. In April, South Korean president Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un met at the DMZ, and, in the Panmunjom Declaration, pledged to work for peace and nuclear disarmament. Relations deterioated again under the Presidency of Yoon Suk Yeol. In January 2024, North Korea officially announced through its leader Kim Jong Un that it would no longer seek reunification with South Korea, identifying the country as a hostile state.