North KoreaBenedict Gombocz

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.

Occupation of Korea, 1945, and the division of Korea, 1950

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.

North Korean military

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

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)

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

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

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

Components of the North Korean economy

Rates of economic growth for North and South Korea, 2003-2007

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)

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)

Yalu and Tumen Rivers

References • https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kn.html

• Other sites:

http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/north-korea(Human Rights in North Korea)