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Korea, North, officially Democratic People�s Republic of Korea, country in northeastern Asia that occupies the northern portion of the Korea Peninsula. North Korea is bounded on the north by China, on the northeast by Russia, on the east by the East Sea (Sea of Japan), on the south by South Korea, and on the west by the Yellow Sea. It has an area of 120,538 sq km (46,540 sq mi). The state of North Korea was established in 1948 as a result of the postWorld War II- Soviet military occupation of the northern portion of the peninsula. The capital and largest city of North Korea is P�yŏngyang.

North Korea is extremely mountainous and marked by deep, narrow valleys. A complex system of ranges and spurs extends across the country in a generally northeastern to southwestern direction. The most prominent mountain range is the Nangnim-sanmaek, in the north central region. Mount Paektu (2,744 m/9,003 ft), on the Chinese border, is the highest peak. Lowland plains comprise only about one-fifth of the total area and are largely confined to the country�s western coast and to the several broad river valleys of the west. Fertile alluvial soils are found in these river valleys. Most of the soils in the mountainous regions lack organic material and are relatively infertile. Nearly all the major rivers rise in the mountains and flow west to the Yellow Sea. The longest river, the Yalu (Amnok), forms part of the border with China. Other streams include the Taedong, Ch�ŏng-ch�ŏn, and Chaeryŏng rivers. Of the major rivers only the Tumen flows to the eastern coast to empty into the East Sea.

North Korea has a continental climate, with hot summers and cold winters. The average July temperature at P�yŏngyang is 24�C (75�F). Winter temperatures at Wŏnsan in the south average -4�C (25�F) but are considerably lower in the north. Annual precipitation in most parts of the country is about 1,000 mm (about 40 in) and is concentrated in the summer months.

Extensive coniferous forests are found in the country�s mountainous interior. Predominant species include spruce, pine, larch, fir, and cedar. The lowland areas of the west have been deforested and are under cultivation. Because of deforestation, large indigenous mammals of North Korea, which include leopards, tigers, deer, bears, and wolves, are becoming increasingly rare, and are confined to remote forested regions. Birdlife includes crane, heron, eagle, and snipe.

North Korea is one of the richer nations in Asia in terms of mineral resources. Major reserves are found of coal, iron ore, tungsten, magnesite, and graphite. Among the other minerals present are gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and molybdenum.

North Korea is one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in the world, with no racial or linguistic minorities other than a small resident foreign (mainly Chinese) population. The Korean people are related to the Mongols.

The population (2001 estimate) of North Korea is 21,968,228. The average population density is 182 persons per sq km (472 per sq mi). The population, however, is very unevenly distributed and is largely concentrated in the lowland plains of the west. Urbanization of the North Korean population has progressed rapidly since the 1950s; 62 percent of the total population of North Korea is now classified as urban.

P�yŏngyang, the capital, is North Korea�s largest city. Other major cities include Ch�ŏngjin, Namp�o, Sinŭiju, Wŏnsan, and Kaesŏng.

North Korea�s national language is Korean, which is written in a phonetic script known as Chosŏn'gŭl (called Han'gŭl in South Korea).

Religious freedom is guaranteed by the North Korean constitution, but in practice religious activity is discouraged, and about two-thirds of the people are nonreligious. Perhaps the most prominent religious tradition belongs to the indigenous Ch�ŏndogyo (�Religion of the Heavenly Way�), which combines elements of Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism).

Education and culture in North Korea are considered instruments by which the Communist government may indoctrinate and foster its ideology.

Education is free and compulsory in North Korea for 10 years. In the late 1980s, some 1.5 million pupils were enrolled annually in elementary schools, and another 2.8 million students attended vocational and secondary schools. The principal institution of higher education is Kim Il Sung University (founded in 1946) in P�yŏngyang. Total enrollment in some 280 institutions of higher education exceeds 300,000. The literacy rate is estimated at about 95 percent.

Cultural activity is aided and encouraged by the government. Historical museums and libraries are located in many of the larger counties. The government has also formed national symphony, theater, and dance companies.

The government-run Korean Central News Agency is the principal distributing source of news in North Korea; several daily newspapers are published. Radio broadcasting is under the auspices of the Korean Central Broadcasting Committee. Television broadcasting was instituted in 1969.

North Korea has a strongly centralized Communist government. The government�s structure is set forth in the constitution promulgated in 1972, which replaced that of 1948. The constitution was revised in 1992 and 1998.

Before Kim Il Sung�s death in 1994, executive power in North Korea was vested in a president, who was head of state, and a premier, who was technically head of government. The president was elected by the Supreme People�s Assembly for a four-year term. The president in turn appointed the members of the Central People�s Committee, the government�s highest policymaking body. The post of president has been vacant since the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994. Kim Il Sung had designated his son, Kim Jong Il, as his successor; however, Kim Jong Il did not assume the presidency. Under a 1998 constitutional amendment, the chair of the National Defense Commission, a post held by Kim Jong Il, was recognized as North Korea�s �highest office.�

The legislature, which in theory is the supreme government organ, is the unicameral Supreme People�s Assembly. Its 687 members are elected by direct vote for four-year terms. The legislature generally meets only several times a year; its day-to-day duties are performed by the standing committee of the assembly.

The judicial system of North Korea consists of the central court and the provincial and people�s courts. The central court is the state�s highest judiciary authority; its judges are appointed to four-year terms by the standing committee.

North Korea is divided into nine provinces, three special cities, and one special district. Provinces are further subdivided into counties and districts. Each local administrative unit has an elected people�s assembly.

The dominant political party, and the actual source of political power, is the Korean Workers� Party (1945). Two smaller parties join with the Korean Workers� Party in the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland.

All North Korean citizens are entitled to disability benefits and retirement allowances. Medical care is free and available at people�s clinics throughout the country.

The Korean Workers� Party maintains political control of the military. In 1999 the total military personnel was about 1,082,000, distributed as follows: army, 950,000; navy, 46,000; and air force, 86,000.

With the establishment of the Democratic People�s Republic in 1948, all industry was nationalized and agriculture was collectivized. Successive economic plans have given emphasis to development of heavy industry and to mechanization of agriculture. The estimated annual national budget in the late 1980s included $15.9 billion in revenues and expenditures.

In 1999 the estimated total workforce of North Korea was 12.3 million, with 38 percent of the workforce engaged in agriculture. The major industrial and technical trade unions are affiliated with the General Federation of Trade Unions; also important is the Korean Agricultural Working People�s Union. Professional workers, including artists, writers, lawyers, and scientists, have their own trade organizations.

Large-scale mechanization, irrigation, and land reclamation have increased crop yields. The principal crops (with their yields in 2000) include rice (2.1 million metric tons), corn (1.2 million), and potatoes (2 million). Other important crops are millet, barley, wheat, vegetables, apples, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. Livestock number about 3 million pigs, 565,000 cattle, 185,000 sheep, and 12 million poultry.

Production of round wood stood at 7 million cubic meters (247 million cubic feet) in 1999. North Korea has a modern fishing fleet; in 1997 the catch was 306,636 metric tons, largely anchovy, tuna, mackerel, and seaweeds.

Mining is an important sector of the North Korean economy, and efforts are being made to develop new deposits. The focus has been on iron ore and coal, which had, in 1999, outputs of 3.9 million and 77.5 million metric tons, respectively. Other important minerals include tungsten, magnesite, zinc, copper, lead, silver, and gold.

Metallurgical industries and the manufacture of heavy machinery represent a major share of North Korea�s national income. Other manufactures include trucks, diesel locomotives, heavy construction equipment, cement, synthetic fibers, fertilizers, and refined copper, lead, zinc, and aluminum.

North Korea is well endowed with hydroelectricity resources, which account for 66 percent of the electrical output. In 1999 electricity production was 28.6 billion kilowatt-hours.

The railroad system of North Korea is electrified along most of its 8,530 km (about 5,300 mi) of track. It has direct links to China and Russia. There are 31,200 km (19,387 mi) of roads, of which only 6 percent are paved. The Taedong River is important to internal trade; the total length of inland waterways is about 2,250 km (about 1,400 mi). Major ports include Namp�o and Haeju on the western coast and Ch�ŏngjin and Wŏnsan on the eastern coast.

The unit of currency is the won (2.20 won equals U.S.$1; May, 1998). North Korea has three banks, all state-controlled; the Korean Central Bank is the bank of issue.

The bulk of North Korea�s foreign trade through the 1970s was with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), China, and other Communist countries. Since then, however, trade has been diversified to include non-Communist countries, notably Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. Hong Kong is also an important trading partner. Minerals, metals, rice, and fish constitute the principal exports (worth about $2.4 billion in the late 1980s). Petroleum, coal, chemicals, and machinery are major imports ($3.1 billion).

For the history of the Korea Peninsula before it was partitioned into North and South Korea, see Korea. The Democratic People�s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was proclaimed in P�yŏngyang on September 9, 1948, but a more significant date of inception would perhaps be August 29, 1946, when North Korea�s Communist Party, properly known as the Korean Workers� Party (KWP), was inaugurated under the leadership of Kim Tubong and Kim Il Sung.

After the establishment of the KWP, Kim Il Sung enjoyed the support of the occupying Soviet forces (until they withdrew in late 1948), and began playing a leading role in Korean affairs north of the 38th parallel. Under the Communist Party and before the establishment of the DPRK, key political and economic reforms had already been made: elimination of moderate and right-wing elements, suppression of religious and most other sectarian groups, confiscation of land and wealth formerly belonging to the Japanese or to enemies of the regime, and the initiation of party-directed economic planning and development. Although Kim Il Sung emerged early as the principal leader, others contended for the top position. One of these, Pak Honyong, a Communist from the south, was executed after the Korean War (1950-1953); some believe that Pak was blamed for the loss of the war, the South Koreans having failed to support the north as Pak had supposedly promised. Kim Tubong and other possible rivals were eliminated by the end of the 1950s, leaving Kim Il Sung in undisputed control.

The war caused enormous damage, but KWP discipline and forced-labor policies resulted in considerable recovery and development by 1960. At the same time, the North Korean leadership began to turn away from Soviet tutelage, emphasizing the national character of the Korean revolution. As the quarrel between China and the USSR intensified, North Korea maneuvered for even more independence of action. During the 1960s heavy industrial growth was emphasized, but the production of consumer goods and the general standard of living lagged. Late in the 1960s, North Korea developed an especially aggressive stance toward the south: An assassination team tried and nearly succeeded in killing South Korea�s president, Park Chung Hee. In 1968 the Pueblo, a United States intelligence-gathering vessel, was seized by North Korean gunboats and its crew held in extremely severe circumstances for a year. Guerrilla raids were launched on the south, but without much effect. A U.S. reconnaissance plane was shot down in April 1969. These events, rather than weakening the south, stimulated renewed defense measures and were probably counterproductive. They also influenced the formation of a harder political order in the south (see Korea, South).

In the 1970s, secret talks with southern officials led to a joint declaration (July 4, 1972) that both sides would seek to develop a dialogue aimed at unification, but by spring 1973 this effort had dissolved in acrimony. Sporadic discussions on unification were held throughout the 1980s.

At the KWP Congress in 1980, Kim Il Sung�s son, Kim Jong Il, was given high ranking in the Politburo and on the Central Committee of the party, placing him in a commanding position to succeed his father. Kim Il Sung was reelected president in May 1990 for a four-year term. In 1991 both North and South Korea joined the United Nations (UN), and the two nations signed accords regarding nuclear weapons and reconciliation. In 1992 North Korea signed a pact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to allow the country�s nuclear facilities to be inspected. However, in 1993 the North Korean government refused to let inspectors examine sites suspected of nuclear-weapons production, and threatened to withdraw from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which the government had signed in 1985. In December 1993 the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said that North Korea had most likely built at least one atomic weapon. Throughout the first half of 1994, the North Korean government continued to resist a full IAEA inspection of alleged nuclear-weapon production sites. The crisis was defused in June, however, when former U.S. president Jimmy Carter met with Kim Il Sung in North Korea. The following month Kim died unexpectedly. Nevertheless, the United States and North Korea reached a framework agreement in 1994 in which North Korea agreed to permanently shut down facilities capable of making weapons-grade material and to allow eventual IAEA inspections of its nuclear sites. In return, the United States agreed to assist North Korea in replacing two of its nuclear reactors with modern versions designed to produce less weapons-grade plutonium. A formal agreement regarding construction of the reactors was signed in 1995. Under the agreement, a U.S.-led international consortium pledged to supervise and finance the project, estimated to cost $4.5 billion.

In April 1996 North Korea announced that it no longer would honor the 1953 armistice that brought an end to the Korean War; in violation of the armistice, North Korea sent heavily armed troops into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a buffer zone that was created between the two Koreas after the Korean War, for three days. In response, the United States and South Korea jointly proposed peace talks with mediation by China and the United States. The talks continued into the late 1990s.

In September 1998 North Korea revised its constitution to recognize the chair of the National Defense Commission, a position held by Kim Jong Il, as the country�s top government post. Kim had been the leader of North Korea since the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994.

Meanwhile, a nationwide food crisis that surfaced in 1995 became a widespread famine by 1996. Factors contributing to the crisis included the withdrawal of food subsidies from the Soviet Union and China in the early 1990s, the cumulative effect of communist agricultural policies, and a series of severe floods and droughts that damaged agricultural crops. International humanitarian relief agencies responded to the crisis with ongoing food aid and other relief efforts. By 1998 between 2 million and 3 million people had died of starvation and famine-related illnesses, according to the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent federal research institute. The famine peaked in 1997, but the food crisis continued into 2001.