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Gallery of the Nations
North Korea
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is an East Asian state that occupies the northern half of the Korean
Peninsula. It is bordered to the north by China and the northeast by Russia. The de-militarized Zone (DMZ) in the
south separates North Korea from South Korea.
North Korea shares the same history with South Korea until partition in 1945. Prior to this time, the whole of the
Korean Peninsula was under the Korean Empire before it was annexed by imperialist Japan in 1905. Following the end
of World War II, the country was drawn into the developing Soviet-American Cold War and was divided, at the 38th
parallel, into the Soviet and American occupied zones. Both the USA and the USSR began promoting friendly
governments in their own zones. In the Soviet-occupied North Korea, the communist Korean Workers’ Party was
inaugurated on August 29, 1946.
All koreans desired unification, but attempts made beginning from 1946 to unify the two Koreas were frustrated by cold war
onsiderations. In August 1948, the KWP refused to take part in a USA-sponsored, United Nations-supervised election in the
South, which resulted in the creation of the Republic of Korea in the south. On September 9, 1948 the north responded with
the proclamation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The division of Korea led to war on June 25, 1950. The war was regarded by Koreans as a civil war between north
and south. A general armnistice was reached on July 27, 1953. Though actual fighting stopped, no permanent peace
was reached and the possibility of renewed fighting remains between the two Koreas.
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