North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK), a communist state located in East Asia, in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula.
History
Prior to the Second World War, Korea had been invaded and colonized by Imperial Japan, whose military officers committed numerous atrocities against Korean people. After the defeat of the Axis Powers, Korea was occupied in the north by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and in the south by the United States of America. This created the context for the division of the Korean Peninsula into two countries which were subsequently set on separate lines of political, cultural, and economic evolution. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea became a Marxist-Leninist one-party dictatorship and by 1950 was embroiled in an undeclared war against its southern, pro-Western, capitalist neighbor, the Republic of Korea. The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China supported North Korea while the United States and her allies supported South Korea. In 1953, the Korean War ended in an armistice which still remains in effect to the modern day. An unoccupied area exists to demarcate the border between the two Korean states, called the Demilitarized Zone. North Korea is ruled by the Kim dynasty, beginning with Kim Il-Sung, who still remains enshrined in the country as the posthumous Eternal President. He has been succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-Il, and his grandson, Kim Jong-Un. The Kim dynasty have made their own additions to the North Korean state ideology which in recent years have superceded orthodox communism, specifically the ideals of Juche, or national self-sufficiency, and Songun, or prioritization of the military. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a major source of material aid to the North Korean government was cut off, resulting in a period of insolvency and famine which took years for the country to recover from. Many details about North Korea's internal affairs are very secretive due to its restrictive domestic policies and its status as an isolationist state which permits few outside visitors. Considered by most outside observers as a remnant of the Cold War, North Korea is hostile to most contemporary governments, especially the United States and Japan, and maintains a reputation for extreme authoritarianism.
Points of Interest
Notes
- In 52 #6, Black Adam announced the "Freedom of Powers Treaty", a mutual-defense pact of his own nation of Kahndaq with Myanmar and North Korea and China.
See Also
- Appearances of North Korea
- Location Gallery: North Korea
- Catalogued images related to North Korea
