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North Korea-KOREA IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY WORLD ORDER
North Korea
Index
The early nineteenth century witnessed a period of sharp
decline in which most of these new developments were
extinguished. Harsh persecution of Roman Catholics began in 1801,
and agricultural production declined, forcing many peasants to
pursue slash-and-burn agriculture in the mountains. Popular
uprisings began in 1811 and continued sporadically throughout the
rest of the century, culminating in the
Tonghak (Eastern Learning) Movement
(see Glossary)
of the 1860s, which spawned a
major peasant rebellion in the 1890s.
Korean leaders were aware that China's position had been
transformed by the arrival of powerful Western gunboats and
traders, but they reacted to the Opium War (1839-42) between
China and Britain by shutting Korea's doors even tighter. In 1853
United States Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his "black
ships" entered Edo Bay, beginning the process of opening Japan to
foreign trade. Korea, however, continued its isolationist policy.
Japan's drastic reform of its institutions--the Meiji Restoration
of 1868--and subsequent industrialization was attributed by
Korean literati to Japan's alleged inferior grasp of Confucian
doctrine. Through its successful rebuff of French and American
attempts to "open" Korea, the regime was encouraged to think it
could hold out indefinitely against external pressure. (The
U.S.S. General Sherman steamed up the Taedong River in
1866 almost to P'yongyang, whereupon the natives burned the ship
and killed all its crew; Kim Il Sung claimed that his
great-grandfather was involved in this incident.)
Reforms from 1864 to 1873 under a powerful leader named the
Taewn'gun, or Grand Prince (Yi Ha-ung, 1821-98), offered further
evidence of Korean resilience; Yi Ha-ung was able to reform the
bureaucracy, bring in new talent, extract new taxes from both the
yangban and commoners, and keep the imperialists at bay.
Korea's descent into the maelstrom of imperial rivalry was quick
after this, however, as Japan succeeded in imposing a
Western-style unequal treaty in February 1876, giving its
nationals extraterritorial rights and opening three Korean ports
to Japanese commerce. China sought to reassert its traditional
position in Korea by playing the imperial powers off against each
other, with the result that Korea entered into unequal treaties
with the United States, Britain, Russia, Italy, and other
countries. These events split the Korean court into pro-Chinese,
pro-Japanese, pro-United States, and pro-Russian factions, each
of which influenced policy until the final annexation of Korea by
Japan in 1910. Meanwhile, various Korean reform movements sought
to get underway, influenced by either Japanese or American
progressives.
A small group of politically frustrated Korean aristocrats in
the early 1880s came under the influence of the Japanese educator
and student of Western knowledge, Fukuzawa Yukichi. This group of
Koreans saw themselves as the vanguard of Korea's
"enlightenment," a term that referred to their nation's release
from its traditional subordination to China and its intellectual
views and political institutions. The group, led by Kim Ok-kyun,
included Kim Hong-jip, Yun Ch'i-ho, and Yu Kil-chun. Yun became
an influential modernizer in the twentieth century, and Yu became
the first Korean to study in the United States--at the Governor
Drummer Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts. Kim Ok-kyun, impressed
by the Meiji Restoration, sought to stage a coup d'état in 1884
with a handful of progressives, including Philip Jaisohn (S
Chae-p'il, 1866-1948), and about 200 Japanese legation soldiers.
Resident Chinese troops quickly suppressed it, however, and Kim
fled to Japan. Philip Jaisohn, a Korean who had studied in the
United States, was the first Korean to become a United States
citizen. He had returned to Korea in 1896 to publish one of its
first newspapers.
For a decade thereafter, China reasserted a rare direct
influence when Yuan Shikai momentarily made China first among the
foreign powers resident in Korea. He represented the scholar-
general and governor of Tianjin, Li Hongzhang, as Director-
General Resident in Korea of Diplomatic and Commercial Relations
in Seoul in 1885. A reformer in China, Yuan had no use for Korean
reformers and instead blocked the slightest sign of Korean
nationalism.
Japan put a definitive end to Chinese influence during the
Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, seizing on the reinvigorated
Tonghak Movement, which spawned a large rebellion in 1894.
Uniting peasants against Western pressure, growing Japanese
economic penetration and their own corrupt and ineffectual
government, the rebellion spread from the southwest into the
center of the peninsula, thus threatening Seoul. The hapless
court invited China to send troops to put the rebellion down,
whereupon Japan had the pretext it needed to send troops to
Korea. After defeating Chinese forces, Japan declared Korea
independent, thus breaking its long tributary relationship with
China. Thereafter, Japan pushed through epochal reforms that
ended the old civil service examination system, abolished
traditional class distinctions, ended slavery, and established
modern fiscal and judicial mechanisms.
Korean reformers influenced by the West, such as Philip
Jaisohn, launched an Independence Club (Tongnip Hyphoe) in 1896
to promote Westernization. They used the vernacular
han'gl in their newspaper, the Tongnip
simmun (The Independent), publishing alternate pages in
English. The club included many Koreans who had studied Western
learning in Protestant missionary schools, and for a while it
influenced not only young reformers but also elements of the
Korean court; one of the reformers was Yi Sng-man, otherwise
known as Syngman Rhee (1875-1965), who later served as the first
president of South Korea. The club was repressed, and it
collapsed after two years.
The Korean people gradually became more hostile towards
Japan. In 1897 King Kojong (r. 1864-1907), fleeing Japanese
plots, ended up in the Russian legation; he conducted the
nation's business from there for a year and shortly thereafter
declared Korea to be the "Great Han [Korean] Empire," from which
comes the name Taehan Min'guk, or Republic of Korea. It
was a futile last gasp for the Chosn; the only question was
which imperial power would colonize Korea.
By 1900 the Korean Peninsula was the focus of an intense
rivalry between the powers then seeking to carve out spheres of
influence in East Asia. Russia was expanding into Manchuria and
Korea, and briefly enjoyed ascendancy on the peninsula when King
Kojong sought its help in 1897. In alliance with France and
Germany, Russia had forced Japan to return the Liaodong
Peninsula, which it had acquired from China as a result of its
victory in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95). Japan promptly
leased the region from China and continued to develop it; shortly
thereafter, in 1900, Japanese forces intervened with the other
imperial powers to put down the Boxer Uprising, a xenophobic
conflict in China against Christians and foreigners. Russia
continued to develop the railroad system in Manchuria and to
exploit forests and gold mines in the northern part of Korea. The
United States, fearing complete exclusion from the region--
especially from China--had declared its open door policy in 1900,
but lacked the means to assert its will. During this period,
however, Americans also were given concessions for rail and
trolley lines, waterworks, Seoul's new telephone network, and
mines. Japan briefly pulled back from the peninsula, but its 1902
alliance with Britain emboldened Japan to reassert itself there.
Russia and Japan initially sought to divide their interests
in Korea, suggesting at one point that the thirty-eighth parallel
be the dividing line between their spheres of influence. The
rivalry devolved into the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) when Japan
launched a successful surprise attack on the Russian fleet at
Port Arthur (Dalian; or Japanese, Dairen). Japan electrified all
of Asia by becoming the first nonwhite country to subdue one of
the "great powers."
Under the peace treaty brokered by Theodore Roosevelt in a
conference at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and signed in 1905,
Russia recognized Japan's paramount rights in Korea. Japan would
not question the rights of the United States in its colony, the
Philippines, and the United States would not challenge Japan's
new protectorate, established in 1905 to control Korea's foreign
policy. Japan installed a resident-general and, two years later,
deposed King Kojong. Significant Korean resistance followed this
deposition, spreading through several provinces as local
yangban organized militias for guerrilla warfare against
Japan. In 1909, An Chung-gn, a Korean assassin, shot It
Hirobumi, the former Japanese resident-general who had concluded
the protectorate agreement; two expatriate Koreans in San
Francisco also gunned down Durham Stevens, a foreign affairs
adviser to the Japanese who had lauded their efforts in Korea. It
was too little and too late. In 1910 Japan turned Korea into its
colony, thus extinguishing Korea's hard-fought independence,
which had first emerged with Silla and Kogury resistance to
Chinese pressures.
Under Japanese imperial pressure that began in earnest with
Korea's opening in l876, the Chosn Dynasty faltered and then
collapsed in a few decades. The dynasty had had an extraordinary
five-century longevity, but although the traditional system could
adapt to the changes necessary to forestall or accommodate
domestic or internal conflict and change, it could not withstand
the onslaught of technically advanced imperial powers with strong
armies. The old agrarian bureaucracy had managed the interplay of
different and competing interests by having a system of checks
and balances that tended over time to equilibrate the interests
of different parties. The king and the bureaucracy kept watch
over each other, the royal clans watched both, scholars
criticized or remonstrated from the moral position of Confucian
doctrine, secret inspectors and censors went around the country
to watch for rebellion and assure accurate reporting, landed
aristocrats sent sons into the bureaucracy to protect family
interests, and local potentates influenced the county magistrates
sent down from the central administration. The Chosn Dynasty was
not a system that modern Koreans would wish to restore, but it
was a sophisticated political system, adaptable enough and
persistent enough to have given unified rule to Korea for half a
millennium.
Data as of June 1993
- North Korea-THE KOREAN WORKERS' PARTY
- North Korea-Primary and Secondary Education
- North Korea-Military Industry
- North Korea-Contemporary Cultural Expression
- North Korea-The United States
- North Korea-INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- North Korea-The Chosn Dynasty: Florescence
- North Korea-KOREA IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY WORLD ORDER
- North Korea-Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation
- North Korea-Literature, Music, and Film
- North Korea-Civil Aviation
- North Korea-Officer Corps: Recruitment and Education
- North Korea-Confucian and Neo-Confucian Values SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND VALUES
- North Korea-Inter-Korean Affairs
- North Korea-GEOGRAPHY
- North Korea-Population Structure and Projections
- North Korea-Korea under the Japanese Occupation ECONOMIC SETTING
- North Korea-EDUCATION
- North Korea-National Command Authority THE ARMED FORCES
- North Korea-Civil Aviation
- North Korea-Reserves and Paramilitary Forces
- North Korea-Record of Economic Performance
- North Korea-GEOPOLITICAL CHANGES: NEW WORLD ORDER AND NORTH KOREAN SECURITY
- North Korea-Resource Development
- North Korea-Relations with the Third World
- North Korea-THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
- North Korea-Urban Life
- North Korea-Production and Distribution of Crops and Livestock
- North Korea-Village Life
- North Korea-Organization and Disposition
- North Korea-Organization and Disposition
- North Korea-Formulation of National Security Policy
- North Korea-Mining and Metal Processing
- North Korea-Forestry
- North Korea-Historical Influences THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM
- North Korea-NORTH KOREA
- North Korea-Postwar Economic Planning
- North Korea-The Korean Language
- North Korea-The Colonial Transformation of Korean Society
- North Korea-GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
- North Korea-Economic Assistance
- North Korea-Relations Between the Military and the Korean Workers' Party
- North Korea-Special Weapons
- North Korea-CORPORATISM AND THE CHUCH'E IDEA
- North Korea-Social Control INTERNAL SECURITY
- North Korea-Military Capability, Readiness, Training, and Recent Trends
- North Korea-Social Education
- North Korea-CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
- North Korea-BUDGET AND FINANCE
- North Korea-RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PARTY
- North Korea-CHAPTER 5 - NATIONAL SECURITY
- North Korea-Adult Education
- North Korea-THE KOREAN WAR
- North Korea-Emergence of the New Doctrine
- North Korea-POPULATION
- North Korea-INDUSTRY
- North Korea-The Period of the Three Kingdoms
- North Korea-NATIONAL SECURITY
- North Korea-The Navy
- North Korea-CHAPTER 2 - THE SOCIETY AND ITS ENVIRONMENT
- North Korea-CHAPTER 1 - HISTORICAL SETTING
- North Korea-Koreans Living Overseas
- North Korea-INTRODUCTION
- North Korea-DEFENSE INDUSTRY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
- North Korea-Architecture and City Planning
- North Korea-Developmental Strategy
- North Korea-Tradition and Modernity in North Korea
- North Korea-Dynastic Decline
- North Korea-The Army
- North Korea-Manufacturing
- North Korea-FOREIGN POLICY
- North Korea-INFRASTRUCTURE
- North Korea-MASS ORGANIZATIONS
- North Korea-The Air Force
- North Korea-Role in National Life
- North Korea-Unification by Kory
- North Korea-POLITICAL IDEOLOGY: THE ROLE OF CHUCH'E
- North Korea-Foreign Investment and Joint Ventures
- North Korea-Air Defense
- North Korea-Higher Education
- North Korea -COUNTRY PROFILE
- North Korea-CHAPTER 4 - GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
- North Korea-THE ORIGINS OF THE KOREAN NATION
- North Korea-Development in Major Sectors
- North Korea-Classes and Social Strata
- North Korea-Transportation and Communications
- North Korea-Special Operations Forces
- North Korea-Energy and Power
- North Korea-Japan
- North Korea-Foreign Trade
- North Korea-PROSPECTS
- North Korea-Weapons and Equipment
- North Korea-Korea under Silla
- North Korea-THE NATIONAL DIVISION AND THE ORIGINS OF THE DPRK
- North Korea-Employment in Offensive Scenario
- North Korea-Telecommunications
- North Korea-The Supreme People's Assembly ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
- North Korea-The Role of Religion
- North Korea-Services and Marketing
- North Korea-Weapons and Equipment
- North Korea-ETHNICITY, CULTURE, AND LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
- North Korea-HISTORICAL SETTING
- North Korea-Educational Themes and Methods
- North Korea-Organization and Management
- North Korea-Chuch'e and Contemporary Social Values
- North Korea-LEADERSHIP SUCCESSION
- North Korea-The Executive Branch
- North Korea-FOREWORD
- North Korea-The Traditional Family and Kinship
- North Korea-AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, AND FISHERIES
- North Korea-Party Cadres
- North Korea-Environmental Protection
- North Korea-Weapons and Equipment
- North Korea-MILITARY HERITAGE
- North Korea-THE MEDIA
- North Korea
- North Korea-THE RISE OF KOREAN NATIONALISM AND COMMUNISM
- North Korea-The Central People's Committee
- North Korea
- North Korea-China and the Soviet Union
- North Korea-FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS
- North Korea
- North Korea-PROSPECTS
- North Korea-The Taean Work System
- North Korea-The Public Security Apparatus
- North Korea-Roads
- North Korea-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE
- North Korea
- North Korea-Local Government
- North Korea
- North Korea-Fisheries
- North Korea-The Evolution of North Korean Military Thought
- North Korea
- North Korea-PUBLIC HEALTH
- North Korea-Military Conscription and Terms of Service
- North Korea-The Ruling Elite
- North Korea-The Nuclear Option
- North Korea-The Ch'ongsan-ni Method
- North Korea-Organization and Management of the Economy
- North Korea-MILITARY DOCTRINE AND STRATEGY
- North Korea-Climate
- North Korea-Family Life
- North Korea-ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- North Korea-Mass Production Campaigns
- North Korea-Operational Practice in the 1980s and 1990s
- North Korea-Chosn Dynasty Social Structure
- North Korea-SOCIETY
- North Korea-ECONOMY
- North Korea
- North Korea-The Judiciary
- North Korea-The Judiciary
- North Korea-The State Administration Council
- North Korea-PARTY LEADERSHIP AND ELITE RECRUITMENT
- North Korea
- North Korea-Relations with China and the Soviet Union FOREIGN MILITARY RELATIONS
- North Korea-Trends, Training, Readiness, and Military Capability
- North Korea
- North Korea-Military Capability and Coastal Defense
- North Korea-TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
- North Korea-PREFACE
- North Korea-Missile Developments
- North Korea-The Role of Women
- North Korea-THE LEGACY OF JAPANESE COLONIALISM
- North Korea
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Background | | An independent kingdom for much of its long history, Korea was occupied by Japan beginning in 1905 following the Russo-Japanese War. Five years later, Japan formally annexed the entire peninsula. Following World War II, Korea was split with the northern half coming under Soviet-sponsored Communist control. After failing in the Korean War (1950-53) to conquer the US-backed Republic of Korea (ROK) in the southern portion by force, North Korea (DPRK), under its founder President KIM Il Sung, adopted a policy of ostensible diplomatic and economic "self-reliance" as a check against outside influence. The DPRK demonized the US as the ultimate threat to its social system through state-funded propaganda, and molded political, economic, and military policies around the core ideological objective of eventual unification of Korea under Pyongyang's control. KIM's son, the current ruler KIM Jong Il, was officially designated as his father's successor in 1980, assuming a growing political and managerial role until the elder KIM's death in 1994. After decades of economic mismanagement and resource misallocation, the DPRK since the mid-1990s has relied heavily on international aid to feed its population. North Korea's history of regional military provocations, proliferation of military-related items, long-range missile development, WMD programs including nuclear weapons test in 2006 and 2009, and massive conventional armed forces are of major concern to the international community.
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Location | | Eastern Asia, northern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan, between China and South Korea
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Area(sq km) | | total: 120,538 sq km
land: 120,408 sq km
water: 130 sq km
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Geographic coordinates | | 40 00 N, 127 00 E
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Land boundaries(km) | | total: 1,673 km
border countries: China 1,416 km, South Korea 238 km, Russia 19 km
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Coastline(km) | | 2,495 km
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Climate | | temperate with rainfall concentrated in summer
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Elevation extremes(m) | | lowest point: Sea of Japan 0 m
highest point: Paektu-san 2,744 m
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Natural resources | | coal, lead, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite, iron ore, copper, gold, pyrites, salt, fluorspar, hydropower
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Land use(%) | | arable land: 22.4%
permanent crops: 1.66%
other: 75.94% (2005)
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Irrigated land(sq km) | | 14,600 sq km (2003)
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Total renewable water resources(cu km) | | 77.1 cu km (1999)
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Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural) | | total: 9.02 cu km/yr (20%/25%/55%)
per capita: 401 cu m/yr (2000)
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Natural hazards | | late spring droughts often followed by severe flooding; occasional typhoons during the early fall
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Environment - current issues | | water pollution; inadequate supplies of potable water; waterborne disease; deforestation; soil erosion and degradation
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Environment - international agreements | | party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea
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Geography - note | | strategic location bordering China, South Korea, and Russia; mountainous interior is isolated and sparsely populated
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Population | | 22,665,345 (July 2009 est.)
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Age structure(%) | | 0-14 years: 21.3% (male 2,440,439/female 2,376,557)
15-64 years: 69.4% (male 7,776,889/female 7,945,399)
65 years and over: 9.4% (male 820,504/female 1,305,557) (2009 est.)
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Median age(years) | | total: 33.5 years
male: 32.1 years
female: 34.9 years (2009 est.)
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Population growth rate(%) | | 0.42% (2009 est.)
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Birth rate(births/1,000 population) | | 14.82 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
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Death rate(deaths/1,000 population) | | 10.52 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
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Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population) | | -0.09 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
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Urbanization(%) | | urban population: 63% of total population (2008)
rate of urbanization: 0.9% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
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Sex ratio(male(s)/female) | | at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.63 male(s)/female
total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
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Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births) | | total: 51.34 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 58.64 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 43.6 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
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Life expectancy at birth(years) | | total population: 63.81 years
male: 61.23 years
female: 66.53 years (2009 est.)
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Total fertility rate(children born/woman) | | 1.96 children born/woman (2009 est.)
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Nationality | | noun: Korean(s)
adjective: Korean
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Ethnic groups(%) | | racially homogeneous; there is a small Chinese community and a few ethnic Japanese
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Religions(%) | | traditionally Buddhist and Confucianist, some Christian and syncretic Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way)
note: autonomous religious activities now almost nonexistent; government-sponsored religious groups exist to provide illusion of religious freedom
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Languages(%) | | Korean
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Country name | | conventional long form: Democratic People's Republic of Korea
conventional short form: North Korea
local long form: Choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk
local short form: Choson
abbreviation: DPRK
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Government type | | Communist state one-man dictatorship
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Capital | | name: Pyongyang
geographic coordinates: 39 01 N, 125 45 E
time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
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Administrative divisions | | 9 provinces (do, singular and plural) and 2 municipalities (si, singular and plural)
provinces: Chagang-do (Chagang), Hamgyong-bukto (North Hamgyong), Hamgyong-namdo (South Hamgyong), Hwanghae-bukto (North Hwanghae), Hwanghae-namdo (South Hwanghae), Kangwon-do (Kangwon), P'yongan-bukto (North P'yongan), P'yongan-namdo (South P'yongan), Yanggang-do (Yanggang)
municipalities: Nason-si, P'yongyang-si
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Constitution | | adopted 1948; revised several times
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Legal system | | based on Prussian civil law system with Japanese influences and Communist legal theory; no judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
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Suffrage | | 17 years of age; universal
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Executive branch | | chief of state: KIM Jong Il (since July 1994); note - on 9 April 2009, rubberstamp Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) reelected KIM Jong Il chairman of the National Defense Commission, a position accorded nation's "highest administrative authority"; SPA reelected KIM Yong Nam in 2009 president of its Presidium also with responsibility of representing state and receiving diplomatic credentials
head of government: Premier KIM Yong Il (since 11 April 2007); Vice Premier KWAK Pom Gi (since 5 September 1998), Vice Premier O Su Yong (since 13 April 2009), Vice Premier PAK Su Gil (since 18 September 2009), Vice Premier PAK Myong Su (since 4 September 2009), Vice Premier RO Tu Chol (since 3 September 2003)
cabinet: Naegak (cabinet) members, except for Minister of People's Armed Forces, are appointed by SPA
elections: last held in September 2003; date of next election NA
election results: KIM Jong Il and KIM Yong Nam were only nominees for positions and ran unopposed
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Legislative branch | | unicameral Supreme People's Assembly or Ch'oego Inmin Hoeui (687 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms)
elections: last held 8 March 2009 (next due to be held in March 2014)
election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NA; ruling party approves a list of candidates who are elected without opposition; a token number of seats are reserved for minor parties
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Judicial branch | | Central Court (judges are elected by the Supreme People's Assembly)
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Political pressure groups and leaders | | none
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International organization participation | | ARF, FAO, G-77, ICAO, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, IHO, IMO, IOC, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, NAM, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNWTO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO
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Flag description | | three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue; the red band is edged in white; on the hoist side of the red band is a white disk with a red five-pointed star
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Economy - overview | | North Korea, one of the world's most centrally directed and least open economies, faces chronic economic problems. Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of years of underinvestment and shortages of spare parts. Large-scale military spending draws off resources needed for investment and civilian consumption. Industrial and power output have declined in parallel from pre-1990 levels. Severe flooding in the summer of 2007 aggravated chronic food shortages caused by on-going systemic problems including a lack of arable land, collective farming practices, and persistent shortages of tractors and fuel. Large-scale international food aid deliveries have allowed the people of North Korea to escape widespread starvation since famine threatened in 1995, but the population continues to suffer from prolonged malnutrition and poor living conditions. Since 2002, the government has allowed private "farmers' markets" to begin selling a wider range of goods. It also permitted some private farming - on an experimental basis - in an effort to boost agricultural output. In October 2005, the government tried to reverse some of these policies by forbidding private sales of grains and reinstituting a centralized food rationing system. By December 2005, the government terminated most international humanitarian assistance operations in North Korea (calling instead for developmental assistance only) and restricted the activities of remaining international and non-governmental aid organizations such as the World Food Program. External food aid now comes primarily from China and South Korea in the form of grants and long-term concessional loans. In May 2008, the US agreed to give 500,000 metric tons of food to North Korea via the World Food Program and US nongovernmental organizations; Pyongyang began receiving these shipments in mid-2008. During the October 2007 summit, South Korea also agreed to develop some of North Korea's infrastructure, natural resources, and light industry, but inter-Korean economic cooperation slowed in 2008 as Pyongyang restricted tourism and manufacturing joint ventures in the North, and food aid from South Korea was suspended. Firm political control remains the Communist government's overriding concern, which will likely inhibit the loosening of economic regulations.
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GDP (purchasing power parity) | | $40 billion (2008 est.)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
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GDP (official exchange rate) | | $26.2 billion (2008 est.)
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GDP - real growth rate(%) | | 3.7% (2008 est.)
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GDP - per capita (PPP) | | $1,800 (2008 est.)
note: data are in 2008 US dollars
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GDP - composition by sector(%) | | agriculture: 23.3%
industry: 43.1%
services: 33.6% (2002 est.)
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Labor force | | 20 million
note: estimates vary widely (2004 est.)
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Labor force - by occupation(%) | | agriculture: 37%
industry and services: 63% (2004 est.)
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Unemployment rate(%) | | NA%
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Population below poverty line(%) | | NA%
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Household income or consumption by percentage share(%) | | lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%
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Budget | | revenues: $2.88 billion
expenditures: $2.98 billion (2005)
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Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%) | | NA%
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Economic aid - recipient | | $372 million
note: approximately 65,000 metric tons in food aid through the World Food Program appeals in 2007, plus additional aid from bilateral donors and non-governmental organizations (2007 est.)
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Agriculture - products | | rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans, pulses; cattle, pigs, pork, eggs
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Industries | | military products; machine building, electric power, chemicals; mining (coal, iron ore, limestone, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and precious metals), metallurgy; textiles, food processing; tourism
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Industrial production growth rate(%) | | NA%
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Exports | | $1.684 billion (2007)
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Exports - commodities(%) | | minerals, metallurgical products, manufactures (including armaments), textiles, agricultural and fishery products
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Exports - partners(%) | | South Korea 45%, China 35%, India 5% (2007)
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Imports | | $3.055 billion (2007)
$2.879 billion (2006)
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Imports - commodities(%) | | petroleum, coking coal, machinery and equipment, textiles, grain
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Imports - partners(%) | | China 46%, South Korea 34%, Thailand 6%, Russia 4% (2007)
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Debt - external | | $12.5 billion (2001 est.)
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Exchange rates | | North Korean won (KPW) per US dollar - 140 (2007), 141 (2006), 170 (December 2004), market rate: North Korean won per US dollar - 3,400 (October 2008)
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Currency (code) | | North Korean won (KPW)
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Telephones - main lines in use | | 1.18 million (2008)
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Telephone system | | general assessment: inadequate system; currently mobile cellular telephone services are available in Pyongyang only
domestic: fiber-optic links installed between cities; telephone directories unavailable; mobile cellular service, initiated in 2002, suspended in 2004; Orascom Telecom, an Egyptian company, launched mobile service on December 15, 2008 for the Pyongyang area only
international: country code - 850; satellite earth stations - 2 (1 Intelsat - Indian Ocean, 1 Russian - Indian Ocean region); other international connections through Moscow and Beijing (2008)
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Internet country code | | .kp
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Airports | | 79 (2009)
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Pipelines(km) | | oil 154 km (2008)
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Roadways(km) | | total: 25,554 km
paved: 724 km
unpaved: 24,830 km (2006)
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Ports and terminals | | Ch'ongjin, Haeju, Hungnam (Hamhung), Kimch'aek, Kosong, Najin, Namp'o, Sinuiju, Songnim, Sonbong (formerly Unggi), Ungsang, Wonsan
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Military branches | | North Korean People's Army: Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force; civil security forces (2005)
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Military service age and obligation(years of age) | | 17 years of age (2004)
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Manpower available for military service | | males age 16-49: 6,225,747
females age 16-49: 6,188,270 (2008 est.)
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Manpower fit for military service | | males age 16-49: 4,104,964
females age 16-49: 4,492,374 (2009 est.)
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Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually | | male: 191,759
female: 184,641 (2009 est.)
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Military expenditures(% of GDP) | | NA
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Disputes - international | | risking arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, tens of thousands of North Koreans cross into China to escape famine, economic privation, and political oppression; North Korea and China dispute the sovereignty of certain islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers; Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone has separated North from South Korea since 1953; periodic incidents in the Yellow Sea with South Korea which claims the Northern Limiting Line as a maritime boundary; North Korea supports South Korea in rejecting Japan's claim to Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima)
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Refugees and internally displaced persons | | IDPs: undetermined (flooding in mid-2007 and famine during mid-1990s) (2007)
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Trafficking in persons | | current situation: North Korea is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation; the most common form of trafficking involves North Korean women and girls who cross the border into China voluntarily; additionally, North Korean women and girls are lured out of North Korea to escape poor social and economic conditions by the promise of food, jobs, and freedom, only to be forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor arrangements once in China
tier rating: Tier 3 - North Korea does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so; the government does not acknowledge the existence of human rights abuses in the country or recognize trafficking, either within the country or transnationally; North Korea has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol (2008)
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Electricity - production(kWh) | | 20.9 billion kWh (2007 est.)
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Electricity - production by source(%) | | fossil fuel: 29%
hydro: 71%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (2001)
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Electricity - consumption(kWh) | | 17.49 billion kWh (2007 est.)
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Electricity - exports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
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Electricity - imports(kWh) | | 0 kWh (2008 est.)
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Oil - production(bbl/day) | | 120.7 bbl/day (2008 est.)
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Oil - consumption(bbl/day) | | 16,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
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Oil - exports(bbl/day) | | 0 bbl/day (2007 est.)
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Oil - imports(bbl/day) | | 13,890 bbl/day (2007 est.)
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Oil - proved reserves(bbl) | | 0 bbl
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Natural gas - production(cu m) | | 0 cu m (2008 est.)
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Natural gas - consumption(cu m) | | 0 cu m (2008 est.)
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Natural gas - exports(cu m) | | 0 cu m (2008)
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Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m) | | 0 cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
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HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%) | | NA
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HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS | | NA
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HIV/AIDS - deaths | | NA
|
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Literacy(%) | | definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99%
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Education expenditures(% of GDP) | | NA
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