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- Nearly all the people of North Korea are ethnic Koreans. A tiny number of Chinese also live in the country. All Koreans speak the Korean language. More than half of the people live in cities. Most North Koreans follow no religion. Smaller groups of people follow traditional Korean beliefs or a religion called Chondogyo.
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26 North Korea Facts for Kids. North Korea is a country on the continent of Asia. The official name for North Korea is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. A native or resident of North Korea is called a Korean or North Korean. The primary language spoken in North Korea is Korean. The capital of North Korea is Pyongyang.
By Aaron Sidder. This mountainous country occupies the northern part of East Asia’s Korean peninsula. FAST FACTS. OFFICIAL NAME: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. FORM OF GOVERNMENT:...
- Aaron Sidder
- North Korea is slightly smaller than Mississippi. It constitutes almost 55% of the Korean Peninsula, covering 46,540 square miles (120,538 km.) of the peninsula’s 85,052 square miles (220,283 square km.).
- Founded in 1948, the official name of North Korea is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The local name for North Korea is Choson-minjujuui-inmin-koughwaguk or Choson (“Land of Morning Calm”).
- When Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945, U.S. president Truman and Soviet leader Stalin agreed that the U.S. would temporarily act as trustee for the southern half of Korea and the Soviet Union would act as trustee for the northern half.
- Though smaller in size, South Korea has a population more than double that of North Korea.
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Early History
Historians think that the Korean people have lived in the area for thousands of years. Before 1910, Korea was one country. It had a king and people were mostly farmers. The country was peaceful and was not communist. In 1910, that changed. Japan and Russiawent to war. Since Japan and Russia were both very close to Korea, Japan took Korea for themselves as part of Japan. Japan then had control.
Divided Korea
Between 1910 and the end of World War II in 1945, Korea was part of Japan. In 1945, the USSRdeclared war on Japan and the United States bombed it (Nagasaki and Hiroshima); severely weakening its empire and forcing it to surrender. Japan's weak status allowed the Soviets to enter Korea fairly freely and occupy the northern half whilst the United States took the southern half. Each then installed governments supporting their respective ideologies, Marxist-Leninist Single Party State (North) and...
The Korean War
See Korean Warfor more details. In 1950, North Korea sent soldiers to South Korea. North Korea wanted to bring together North and South Korea to form a single Korean country, and Korean families that had been split by the division of North and South to be together again. The North Korean leaders wanted South Korea to be communist, like North Korea and the Soviet Union were. The United Nations sent soldiers to Korea. These soldiers came from many countries. These countries did not like Communi...
People often think that North Korea is a communist country. It is actually a socialist-military dictatorship. In its most recent constitutional change, the word 'communism' was removed. Large pictures of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin were removed from Kim Il-Sung square in 2012. The government has a similar structure to the former Soviet Union(USSR)...
Historically, both South Korea and North Korea have the same set of values. In 1945, the peninsula was divided. Since then, the government of both North and South Korea were different. This has led to different developments in both North and South Korea. Human Rights Watch says that free religious activities do not exist in North Korea. The culture...
The land of North Korea is divided into nine areas called provincesand two cities. The nine provinces are: 1. Pyongannam 2. Pyonganbuk 3. Chagang 4. Hwanghaenam 5. Hwanghaebuk 6. Kangwon 7. Hamgyongnam 8. Hamgyongbuk 9. Ryanggang The two cities are: 1. Pyongyang, the capital city and also the largest city 2. Rason, a special city where other countr...
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 kilometres (46,541 sq mi). North Korea shares land borders with China and Russia to the north, and borders South Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. To its west are the Ye...
Demographics
With the exception of a small Chinese community and a few ethnic Japanese, North Korea's people are ethnically homogeneous. Demographic experts in the 20th century estimated that the population would grow to 25.5 million by 2000 and 28 million by 2010, but this increase never occurred due to the North Korean famine. It began in 1995, lasted for three years and resulted in the deaths of between 240,000 and 420,000 North Koreans. International donors led by the United States initiated shipments...
Education
The 2008 census listed the entire population as literate. An 11-year free, compulsory cycle of primary and secondary education is provided in more than 27,000 nursery schools, 14,000 kindergartens, 4,800 four-year primary and 4,700 six-year secondary schools. 77% of males and 79% of females aged 30–34 have finished secondary school. An additional 300 universities and colleges offer higher education. Most graduates from the compulsory program do not attend university but begin their obligatory...
Language
North Korea shares the Korean language with South Korea, although some dialectal differences exist within both Koreas. North Koreans refer to their Pyongyang dialect as munhwaŏ ("cultured language") as opposed to the dialects of South Korea, especially the Seoul dialect or p'yojun'ŏ ("standard language"), which are viewed as decadent because of its use of loanwords from Chinese and European languages (particularly English). Words of Chinese, Manchu or Western origin have been eliminated from...
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 g...
Despite a historically strong Chinese influence, Korean culture has shaped its own unique identity. It came under attack during the Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945, when Japan enforced a cultural assimilation policy. Koreans were forced to learn and speak Japanese, adopt the Japanese family name system and Shintoreligion, and were forbidden to writ...
Territory often changed hands early in the war, until the front stabilized.North Korean, Chinese, and Soviet forcesSouth Korean, U.S., Commonwealth, and United Nations forcesStatue of Chollima Movement in Pyongyang- Interestingly, you can smoke Marijuana legally in North Korea. It is not even classified as a drug in the country.
- On January 23, 1968, North Korea captured “USS Pueblo (AGER-2),” a Banner-class environmental research ship commissioned by the U.S. Navy. It is the world’s only nation to capture and retain a U.S. Navy ship to date.
- North Korea does not use the Gregorian calendar, which is also known as the Western calendar and the Christian calendar. They have their own calendar in place.
- The North Korean city of Pyongyang has the world’s largest stadium, boasting a seating capacity of 150,000. This stadium is used for football, athletics and mass games.
May 29, 2024 · The most interesting facts about North Korea, from "three generations of punishment" to a metro system that doubles as a nuclear bunker.
Dec 3, 2017 · Updated November 9, 2023. These interesting North Korea facts couldn't be true of any other country and prove that the Hermit Kingdom is even more unique than you thought. Fewer than one in five North Koreans are estimated to have a mobile phone.
