North Korea

What is North Korea?

North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a communist state occupying the northern part of the Korean Peninsula - bordering China and Russia to the north, and South Korea to the south.

The country is ruled by a reclusive autocratic leader, Kim Jong-Il, the son of the country's founder, Kim Il-Sung - who remains its 'eternal president' in law.

North Korea is a "totalitarian" state, where the majority of the public live in absolute poverty and where outbreaks of famine and power cuts are commonplace.

The DPRK has, however, since the 1970s been widely accused of being a sponsor of international terrorism. It has a highly developed military technology sector, and has reportedly supplied arms to Libya, Iran and Syria.

Background

After the Second World War, Japanese domination was ended, and the peninsula was partitioned. The north came under the domination of the Communists and the south under the influence of the West.

Kim Il-Sung, then a major in the Soviet Army, was put in charge of forming a Stalinist government - and he became the country's premier in 1948, surviving in that post until 1994 - when he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jon-Il.

In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea - beginning the Korean War, which lasted until 1953 and was one of the 'hottest' episodes of the Cold War. From 1953, Kim Il-Sung created an austere, militarised and highly regimented North Korean society that worshipped him as a deified leader - based on his philosophy of 'Juche'. The DPRK still has pretensions to the conquest of South Korea, and huge numbers of troops today face one another over the demilitarised border zone.

Controversies

The DPRK is one of the most secretive and insular countries in the world. It has a long history of refusing to deal with the outside world, and of great unpredictability in what it does do.

The unpredictability ascribed to the North Korean leadership, its possession of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and other Weapons of Mass Destruction, its belligerent intentions towards South Korea and the desperation of its population, lead the DPRK to be perceived in many quarters as one of the most serious sources of international threat in the world.

The DPRK began a civil nuclear programme, with Soviet assistance, in the 1960s - and is believed to have begun to militarise its nuclear research in the 1980s. In 2002, the DPRK backed out of a 1994 agreement to shut down its nuclear plants - and in 2003, it told the US and China that it has nuclear weapons.

In July 2006, North Korea tested one long-range and five medium-range missiles. However, the long-range Taepodong-2 missile crashed after less than a minute.

But two months later, in October, the government claimed to have detonated a nuclear bomb at an underground test site. The secretive nature of the state means no definitive figures are available on the strength of the explosion, but it was condemned by all members of the UN Security Council, including China. However, South Korea, China and Russia ruled out the possibility of military retaliation and the Security Council instead agreed resolution 1718, imposing some economic and military sanctions on North Korea.

In February 2007 an agreement was finally reached in the Six Party Talks, begun in 2003 between North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the US. Under the agreement the US would remove North Korea from its list of terrorist states (which also included Syria, Sudan, Cuba and Iran) in return for nuclear disablement.

But the deal was beset with difficulties and in October 2008 North Korea stated that it had halted the dismantling of its nuclear programme because it had still not been removed from the terrorist blacklist. President Bush, in order to salvage the deal, then announced that North Korea had been delisted in return for verification of the country's nuclear declaration.

However, many members of Mr Bush's own party, including the presidential candidate Senator John McCain, remained unconvinced that North Korea would follow through and co-operate fully with the nuclear verification programme. And the Democrats too, whilst welcoming the move, were equally sceptical about North Korea's commitment to the deal.

Rightly so as it turned out because in May 2009 North Korea carried out a second underground nuclear test. The UN Security Council condemned the test "in the strongest terms" and unanimously adopted resolution 1874 to tighten sanctions against the DPRK, widening the ban on arms imports-exports, and calling on Member States to search North Korean ships and "seize and destroy" any banned cargo. North Korea responded by stating that it was continuing with its uranium enrichment programme.

Tensions between North and South Korea were raised again in November 2010 when the North fired an artillery barrage on the Southern island of Yeonpyeong killing two marines and two civilians. The island is reported to be used as a military base by South Korean troops and North Korea claimed it was provoked into the attack when South Korea carried out artillery drills within Northern territorial waters.

Statistics

North Korea:
Area: 121,555 sq km (75,364 square miles) (55% of the peninsula)
Population: 22, 664,000 (2003 UN estimate) or 23,612,000 (2004 DPRK figure)
Currency: (North Korean) Won (officially around 209 to the euro although market rates are much higher). Foreigners are required to use euros (1.12 to the pound as of May 2009).

Source: FCO - 2010

Quotes

"The guiding principle of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the Juche Idea created by the Great Leader President Kim Il Sung.

"The Juche Idea provides for the creation of an indestructible unity of the masses and the Leader in such a way that an independent and sovereign state can be constructed and the people can use their talent and strength for the common good.

"The first step toward creating a state of this kind is to maintain Chajusong (Independence) in all political matters. In this way, the government is able to resolve all problems in an independent and sovereign way. It is able to protect the dignity of the nation and to act on the basis of equality in the arena of foreign relations.

"In economic terms, the Juche Idea means Self-Reliance so that the nation, through its own industrial capability and military self-defense, remains forever free from the control of imperialist powers. In this way, implementation of the Juche Idea avoids economic crises as well as dependence on outside forces. It eliminates the disparity between upper and lower classes; and it secures the development and prosperity of the nation.

"In the military sphere, the Juche Idea means Self-Defense. It is of paramount importance to protect the country with invincible military strength, which will safeguard the revolutionary achievements of the Motherland from hostile Yankee imperialism and the actions of its stooges."

Korean Friendship Association website - 2010