Take a look at North Korea
The Democratic People

BACKGROUND
When someone thinks about Asia, they usually think of the big three: China, Korea, and Japan. Although Asia consists of other major countries that have contributed much to Asia’s reputation and the world, Korea has lately been a hot topic. Korea, as a whole, consists of two parts, North Korea and South Korea. However, the two halves existed as one country at one time. It was not until particular events, such as the Cold War and the Korean War that caused the separation of Korea. The dividing line is called the KDZ, the Korean Demilitarized Zone, also known as the 38th parallel. This separation still exists, not only separating the people based on political beliefs but also separating family ties.

GOVERNMENT
Currently, North Korea’s government is one of a communist dictatorship. After Korea claimed independence from Japan’s rule in 1945 the KWP, Korean Worker’s Party was formed. All governmental positions belong to this group. Shortly after, Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s ruler led the country in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the title of Secretary General of the KWP and the President of North Korea. Succeeding him in 1997 was his son Kim Jung-il. Kim Jung-il claimed the title of General Secretary of the KWP. The following year the SPA, the Supreme People’s Assembly, additionally gave him the title of Chairman of the National Defense Commission. This position was declared as the highest position of the state in North Korea. Officially, the SPA is the highest political group concerning state power. However, the Central People’s Committee is currently North Korea’s top policy body. With this committee, they supervise the SAC, the State Administrative Council and make policy decisions. The SPA elects a committee to perform legislative duties when the SPA is not in session. This is only because the SPA only ratifies decisions made by the ruling KWP. The SPA’s committee also appoints judges to the highest court to serve a four year term, concurrent to the members of the SPA.

DEMOGRAPHICS
North Korea is compared to the state of Pennsylvania, in shape. However, the climate, weather, and landscape are quite different. The capitol of North Korea is Pyongyang. Some of the major cities are Kaesong, Sinuiji, Wonsan, Hamburg, and Chongjin. Its tallest mountain is Paektu-san Mountain. The longest river is the Amnok River. The climate is rather temperate. The summers are usually rainy, a time known as changma, which makes the winters bitterly cold.

There are roughly 23 million people living in North Korea. Some of the residents are of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, European and South Korean descent. The people in North Korea usually live to about 72 years of age according to the 2008 census. Many North Koreans have a Buddhist and Confucian background, similar to China’s beliefs, but Christianity and Cheondoism exists as well. Interestingly, North Korea has had a high percentage of people being persecuted for Christianity. Educationally, Korea offers many forms of basic education as well as high education. Many universities exist throughout North Korea, such as the Kim Il-Sung University. The country’s official literacy rate is very high, equaling 99%.

CULTURE
Korea’s culture has evolved greatly since its separation. Korea has adopted some culture from neighboring countries, such as China and has done this for nearly 3,000 years. However, foreign government and citizen, such as Japan and the U.S., have been depicted as “heartless monsters” while North Korean revolutionary heroes and heroines are seen as saintly figures. Kim Il-sung is one of those revolutionary heroes in their eyes, also viewed as a prolific writer. This led to the fact that Kim Il-sung and the Korean Workers’ Party controlled the production of literature and art. Through Kim Il-sung, Juche was created. Juche is a doctrine that is translated as “independent stand” or “the spirit of self-reliance.” Additionally, this gives the KWP’s Central Committee control over culture through the “Propaganda and Agitation Department and the Culture and Arts Department.” This propaganda is shown through the population’s ignorance of foreign culture. Whenever limited performers are invited to North Korea, the performances depict other country’s love and respect for their leader, reiterating that the population should do the same. One central theme of cultural expression was to take the good from the past and discard the bad. The capitol and other large cities have been noted to offer narrow selections of cultural expression. “Mass Games” are another form of propaganda with performances in choreographic dance, gymnastics, traditional dances, and songs chanted to show their loyalty to Kim Il-sung, the KWP, and the principle of Juche.

LANGUAGE
The Korean population, both North and South Korea, speaks Korean. There are some dialect differences but there is no linguistic barrier between the North and South Koreas. The phonetic writing system for North Korea is called Chosongul.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
With the end of communism in Eastern Europe, North Korea’s economy declined greatly during the 1990s. Two other contributors of the economic decline were the former Soviet Union’s disintegration and a halt on block trade with countries that participated in the socialist block. Between 1990 and 2002, North Korea’s gross national income per capita had fallen about a third of its usual amount. In the summer of 1995, North Korea experienced famine and severe flooding. This triggered a food shortage and a spread of malnutrition. In the later months of 2005, North Korea’s government banned private grain sales and began to ration its food. Another factor in the decline of the economy was the money put into the maintaining of the military. The industries suffer due to a lack of fuel, spare parts, and other inputs. There has been an occasion where the southern half of Korea tried to assist in the north’s time of need, but their aid was refuse due to South Korea’s former leader’s, Lee Myung-bak, inauguration. The U.S. currently assists North Korea ensuring that food will reach those most needed as of June 2008. North and South Korea have been working together to better the country in the last twenty year. Legally in 1988, North and South Korea created a Special Economic Zone, which 65 factories were built in the city of Kaesong and many North Korean workers were employed. This two-way trade generated $1.8 billion in 2007. From this, both north and south established the KIC, Kaesong Industrial Complex and increased its firms to 72 and its North Korean employment of more than 30,000 as of August 2008.