North Korea
Name
| Official name | Democratic People's Republic of Korea — Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk (조선민주주의인민공화국); the DPRK; Pukchosŏn, "North Korea," in the South's Bukhan |
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| Former names | The Soviet Civil Administration and the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea (1945–48); Chōsen of the Japanese annexation (1910–45); the Korean Empire (1897–1910) and the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897); Goryeo of Kaesong; Goguryeo and Balhae of the north |
| Demonym | North Korean; Korean — Chosŏn saram in the North, Hanguk saram in the South |
| Meaning of the name | Chosŏn — the "land of the morning calm" of the poetic reading, the Joseon of the Yi kings and the Gojoseon of the Dangun legend of 2333 BC; Korea from Goryeo, the "high and beautiful" dynasty of 918–1392 that the Arab traders named to the West; the North the Chosŏn, the South the Han |
| Motto | "Kangsŏng Taeguk" — a powerful and prosperous nation, the slogan of Kim Jong Il; "Juche" the creed; no motto official |
Quick facts
| Capital | Pyongyang — the capital of Goguryeo of 427 and of the republic since 1948; about 3 million; the directly governed city of the loyal |
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| Largest cities | Pyongyang; Hamhung, about 770,000, the industrial city of the east; Chongjin, about 670,000, the steel city of the northeast; Nampo, the port of the capital; Wonsan of the east coast and the Kalma resort of 2025; Sinuiju on the Yalu facing Dandong; Tanchon; Kaechon; Kaesong of the old kings and the shut industrial park; Sariwon; Rason of the special zone |
| Official language | Korean — the Munhwaŏ, the "cultured language" of Pyongyang standardized since 1966 in the Chosŏn'gŭl alphabet alone, the Chinese characters banned, the Sino-Korean words replaced by native ones and the Russian loans, the South's "puppet speech" of English words a crime under the laws of 2020 and 2023 and the crackdown of 2026; the dialects of Hamgyong and Pyongan; Russian, Chinese and English in the schools of the elite |
| Currency | North Korean won — KPW, ₩; 100 chon; since 1947, redenominated 30 November 2009; about 100 to the U.S. dollar by the fiction of the state and about 8,000 to 30,000 by the market of the 2020s; the dollar and the yuan the real money |
| Time zone | Pyongyang Time, UTC+9; the UTC+8:30 of 15 August 2015 to 5 May 2018 abandoned for the South's hour after the Panmunjom summit; no summer time |
| Calling code | +850 |
| Internet domain | .kp — a few dozen sites, the Kwangmyong intranet for the rest |
| ISO 3166 codes | KP · PRK · 408 |
| Vehicle registration code | None assigned by the convention; "DPRK" on the few cars abroad |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 220 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and F; the blackouts of every night |
| Independence | 15 August 1945, the liberation from Japan, the Day of Liberation of the Fatherland; 9 September 1948, the founding of the republic, the Day of the Foundation of the Republic; the war of 1950–53 unfinished, the armistice of 27 July 1953 and no peace treaty |
| National days | 9 September, the Foundation of the Republic; 15 August, Liberation Day; 15 April, the Day of the Sun, Kim Il Sung's birthday of 1912, the greatest holiday; 16 February, the Day of the Shining Star, Kim Jong Il's of 1942; 8 January, Kim Jong Un's, unmarked in public; 10 October, the Party Foundation Day of 1945; 25 April, the Army's founding of 1932 by the revolutionary army's count; 27 July, Victory Day, the armistice; 27 December, Constitution Day; the lunar new year, Chuseok and the Dano; the Juche calendar of the years since 1912 dropped in October 2024 |
| Constitution | 27 December 1972 — the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK, in place of the constitution of 1948, the charter of the Juche state and of Kim Il Sung's presidency, revised in 1992, in 1998 to make him the "eternal president" and the Cabinet and the Presidium the organs of state, in 2009 for the "songun" of the army first and the erasure of communism, in 2012 to name the country a nuclear-armed state, in 2016 for the State Affairs Commission, in 2019 for Kim Jong Un as head of state, in September 2023 to write the nuclear policy into the text, in October 2024 to drop the reunification and mark the South a hostile state by the reports, and in the session of 22–23 March 2026 that "redefined the borders" in words the state has not published in full, "vague," the sources say; the party's charter above it |
| Population | 24,052,231 at the census of 2008, the last published; about 26.4 million (UN, 2026 est.) |
| Area | 120,538 km² (46,540 sq mi) — land 120,408 km², water 130 km²; the northern 55% of the peninsula |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A wide red band edged with thin white stripes and blue bands above and below, bearing at the hoist a white disc with a red five-pointed star — the red for the revolution and the blood of the patriots, the white for the purity of the one nation, the blue for sovereignty, peace and friendship, the star for socialism and the leader; the "flag of the red-colored republic," the Ramhongsaek Konghwagukgi, adopted 8 September 1948 on the eve of the founding in place of the Taegukgi of the South and of old Korea, designed by the Soviets' Korean printers by one account and by Kim Il Sung himself by the state's.Flag of North Korea |
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| National emblem | A hydroelectric dam, the Supung of the Yalu, under Mount Paektu and a red star with rays, framed by ears of rice bound with a red ribbon lettered with the republic's name; adopted 1948 and Paektu added in the revision of 1993, the sacred mountain of the dynasty over the power plant of the plan |
| National anthem | "Aegukka" ("The Patriotic Song") — the words of the poet Pak Se-yong and the music of Kim Won-gyun of 1947, adopted 1947 and confirmed 1948, "let morning shine on the silver and gold of this land," the same title as the South's anthem and a different song; the "Song of General Kim Il Sung" the hymn sung more |
| National motto | None official — "Juche" the ideology written in the constitution, "Kangsŏng Taeguk" the slogan |
| National colors | Red, white and blue |
| National animal | The Chollima, the winged horse of the legend that covers a thousand li a day, the emblem of the Chollima movement of 1958 and the statue of Pyongyang; the Pungsan dog of the north, the hunting breed Kim Jong Un gave the South's president in 2018; the northern goshawk the national bird by the decision of 2009; widely cited |
| National flower | The magnolia — mongnan, Magnolia sieboldii, the white flower of the mountains, declared by Kim Il Sung in 1991; the Kimilsungia orchid and the Kimjongilia begonia of the leaders, the flowers of the April festival; the pine the national tree since 2015; widely cited |
| National dish | Pyongyang naengmyeon — the cold buckwheat noodles in the chilled broth of Okryu-gwan, the dish the Southern president ate at the summit of 2018 and the South queued for after; kimchi, on the UNESCO list in the North's name since 2015 as in the South's; the Kaesong dumplings, the Hamhung noodles, the corn and the potatoes of the rations, the injo gogi of the soy "meat"; the Taedonggang beer; widely cited |
| National sport | Football, the Chollima of the World Cup of 1966 that beat Italy and reached the quarterfinal, the first Asian team to do so, and of 2010; the women's teams, the world champions of the under-17 and under-20 tournaments of 2024 and 2025, the Asian champions; the Mass Games of Arirang, the largest gymnastic display on earth at 100,000 performers; the table tennis of the unified team of 1991 and the mixed doubles silver of Paris; the weightlifting golds; the Pyongyang Marathon of April; the ssirum wrestling on UNESCO's list with the South since 2018; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag and the emblem by the constitution and the decisions of 1948 and 1993; the anthem by the same; the animal and bird by the decisions of the state; the flower and the tree by the leaders' declarations; the dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | East Asia, the northern half of the Korean peninsula — China to the north and northwest across the Yalu and the Tumen, Russia at the Tumen's mouth to the northeast, South Korea to the south across the Demilitarized Zone, the Yellow Sea to the west and the Sea of Japan, the East Sea of the Koreans, to the east; Japan 200 km across the water |
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| Land borders | 1,607 km (999 mi) with three neighbors — China 1,352, the Yalu and the Tumen and the Paektu crest, the bridges of Sinuiju–Dandong of the trade and the smuggling, the Chinese fence; South Korea 238, the Military Demarcation Line of the armistice inside the Demilitarized Zone of 4 km, the most fortified border on earth, the mines, the loudspeakers switched off in June 2025, the roads and rails the North blew up on 15 October 2024; Russia 18 along the Tumen, the Friendship Bridge of the railway and the road bridge of 2024–26 |
| Coastline | 2,495 km (1,550 mi) — the west coast of the Yellow Sea with its mudflats and the 8-meter tides, Nampo and the West Sea Barrage; the east coast of the deep water, Wonsan's bay and the Kalma beach, Hamhung, Chongjin and the port of Rason where the Russians lease a pier; the Northern Limit Line of the Yellow Sea and the islands of Yeonpyeong the naval flashpoint; the Ryukyu current; the fishing boats that drift to Japan |
| Highest point | Paektu, 2,744 m (9,003 ft), on the Chinese border, the volcano and the sacred mountain; Chon, Heaven Lake, in its crater at 2,190 m |
| Lowest point | The Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 600 m (1,969 ft) |
| Rivers | The Yalu — Amnok — 790 km from Paektu to the Yellow Sea at Sinuiju, the Chinese border and the Supung dam of 1941 of the emblem, the floods of July 2024 that drowned the border towns; the Tumen, 521 km from Paektu to the Sea of Japan, the Chinese and Russian border and the crossing of the defectors; the Taedong, 439 km, through Pyongyang to Nampo and its barrage; the Chongchon of the war's battles; the Imjin that crosses the DMZ to the South; the Songchon; the rivers of the mountains short and fast |
| Lakes | Chon, Heaven Lake, the crater lake of Paektu, 9.8 km² and 384 m deep, shared with China, the deepest and highest crater lake of Asia by the claim; the Supung reservoir of the Yalu, 300 km², shared; the Changjin reservoir of the "Chosin" of the war; the Sijung and Kwangpo lagoons of the east coast; the West Sea Barrage of 1986 that turned the Taedong's mouth into a lake; the Samjiyon of the Paektu district |
| Terrain | Mountains and plateaus over four-fifths — the Hamgyong range of the northeast at 2,500 m, the Rangrim down the spine, the Kangnam and the Myohyang of the north, the Kumgang of the "Diamond Mountains" of 12,000 peaks on the east coast, the Kaema plateau at 1,000 to 2,000 m, "the roof of Korea"; the coastal plains of the west where the rice grows and the cities stand, the Pyongyang and the Anju plains, the Chaeryong; the narrow eastern coast; the deforested slopes of the famine years, the "hills without trees" of the 1990s replanted since; the DMZ's wild belt |
| Climate | Continental with the monsoon — the winters Siberian at −20°C in the north and −8 in Pyongyang, the rivers frozen, the summers hot and wet at 25°C with the rains of July and August, 1,000 mm on the west and 600 in the northeast; the typhoons of the east coast; the droughts of the spring that decide the harvest; the coldest winters of the peninsula |
| Natural hazards | Floods — the Yalu floods of late July 2024 that put Sinuiju and Uiju under water, thousands rescued by helicopter and the officials fired, the floods of 2020 and 2016 in the northeast; the droughts of 2015 and 2019 and the harvests they cut; the typhoons; the famine of 1994–98, the "Arduous March," of 600,000 dead by the low counts and 2 million by the high, the state's failure; Paektu, dormant since 1903, the eruption of 946 that spread ash to Japan, the swarms of 2002–05 the geologists watch; the earthquakes of the nuclear tests at Punggye-ri; the cold of the winters in the unheated flats |
| Natural resources | Minerals of about 200 kinds — coal, the anthracite of the west, the export the UN banned in 2017; iron ore of Musan, the largest deposit of Asia by the state's count; magnesite of Tanchon, the largest reserves in the world; graphite, tungsten, molybdenum, zinc, lead, gold of the mines; the rare earths of Jongju the state claims at 216 million tons; the uranium of Pyongsan; the hydropower of the rivers; the fish of the two seas; the ginseng of Kaesong; the timber of the north; the land of 2 million hectares of rice and maize |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 22%, the arable a fifth of the country on the western plains; forest about 46%, half of it degraded by the famine's cutting; the mountains the rest |
| National parks and reserves | Mount Paektu, the biosphere reserve of 1989 and the sacred district of Samjiyon; Mount Kumgang, the Diamond Mountains of the tours of 1998–2008 and the World Heritage of 2025; Mount Myohyang, the biosphere reserve of 2009 and the International Friendship Exhibition of the leaders' gifts; Mount Chilbo of the northeast; the Mundok migratory bird reserve of the Ramsar list; the Kuwol; the Demilitarized Zone the accidental reserve of the cranes and the leopards; the Pyongyang zoo |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 3 — the Complex of Koguryo Tombs (2004), the 63 painted tombs of the kingdom of 37 BC – 668 around Pyongyang and Nampo, the first site listed; the Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong (2013), the capital of Goryeo, the Sonjuk Bridge and the Songgyungwan academy; Mount Kumgang, the Diamond Mountain from the Sea (2025), the peaks, the falls and the Buddhist carvings; the Arirang folk song (2014), the kimchi-making (2015) and the ssirum wrestling (2018, with the South) on the intangible list; the Pyongyang tombs of the Goguryeo the shared heritage with the South's Baekje and Silla |
| Administrative divisions | 9 provinces — North and South Pyongan, North and South Hwanghae, North and South Hamgyong, Chagang, Ryanggang and Kangwon — with the people's committees of the party; the directly governed city of Pyongyang; the special cities of Rason of the economic zone with China and Russia, Nampo and Kaesong; about 190 counties and cities; the Samjiyon of the Paektu district; the "20×10" policy of 2024 of the factories for 20 counties a year |
People
| Population | 24,052,231 (census of 2008); about 26.4 million (2026 est.) |
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| Population density | About 215 per km² (560 per sq mi) — the western plains crowded, the mountains empty |
| Population growth | About 0.3% a year — the births fallen below replacement, "a duty to the nation," Kim Jong Un told the mothers' meeting of 2023 |
| Median age | About 36 years |
| Life expectancy | About 73 years — 70 for men, 76 for women, by the UN's estimates; the famine generation the shorter |
| Fertility rate | About 1.8 births per woman — below the replacement the state exhorts |
| Urban population | About 63% |
| Adult literacy | 100% by the state's count; the schooling of eleven years compulsory since 2012 |
| Ethnic groups | Korean about 99.8%, the most homogeneous population of any country — the songbun of the castes of the loyal, the wavering and the hostile the division that matters, the "core" of the party families of Pyongyang, the descendants of the collaborators and the landlords at the bottom; the Chinese of a few thousand, the Japanese wives of the returnees of the 1960s, the handful of foreigners of the embassies and the aid |
| Languages | Korean by all, the Pyongyang standard of the Munhwaŏ and the dialects; the Hangul only since 1949, the Chinese characters taught but unused; the Russian of the older elite and the English of the newer, the Chinese of the traders; the words of the South, the "oppa" and the loanwords, punished by the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law of 2020 and the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Law of 2023, the "puppet speech" crackdown of 2026 with the constitution's new weight |
| Religion | Officially none — the Juche of the state the faith in fact, the leaders its gods, the "Ten Principles" its commandments; Buddhist about 1.5% by the estimates, the 60 temples of the state and the monks who show them, the Chondoist Chongu Party of the native religion of 1860 among the three parties allowed; Christian about 1.7%, the four churches of Pyongyang for the foreigners and the underground of the believers, the Pyongyang of 1907 that was "the Jerusalem of the East" and the 300,000 Christians of 1945 gone south or to the camps, the missionaries jailed; the shamanism of the fortune tellers persisting; the religious freedom of the constitution's Article 68 and the Open Doors ranking of the worst country for Christians for two decades |
| Human Development Index | Not ranked — UNDP publishes no index for the DPRK, no data submitted; about 0.73 by the last estimate of 1995 |
| The camps and the defectors | The political prison camps of the kwalliso, 80,000 to 120,000 held by the UN's commission of 2014 that found crimes against humanity, the camps of Yodok closed and Hwasong, Kaechon and Chongjin open by the satellites, the three generations punished for one, the kyohwaso of the ordinary prisoners; the executions, public and secret, for the South Korean dramas since 2020; the 34,000 defectors who reached the South since the 1990s, 224 in 2025 and a few dozen a year since the border was sealed in 2020 and the guards ordered to shoot, the Tumen crossings and the Chinese repatriations, the boat crossings of the fishermen; the Otto Warmbier death of 2017; the workers abroad, the 15,000 in Russia of the logging and the building sites and the thousands in China, their wages the state's |
| Sport | Football — the 1966 quarterfinal of Middlesbrough and Pak Doo-ik's goal against Italy, the World Cup of 2010, the women who won the under-17 and the under-20 World Cups of 2024 and the under-17 again in 2025, Ri Hyang Sim; the Olympics of Paris of 2024 with two silvers and four bronzes, the mixed doubles of the table tennis the silver and the selfie of the two Koreas' players; the Mass Games of Arirang at the May Day Stadium; the Pyongyang Marathon of April with the foreign runners back since 2025; the weightlifting of the Rim Jong-sim golds; the gymnastics; the unified teams of 1991 and 2018; the ice hockey of the Olympics of Pyeongchang |
| Diaspora | The Koreans of the North abroad — the 15,000 workers in Russia and the thousands in China of the sanctioned contracts, the restaurant waitresses of Beijing and Dandong; the Chongryon of Japan, the pro-North Koreans of the Japanese community, 100,000 once, the 93,000 who "returned" to the North in 1959–84 and never came back; the defectors of the South and the 200 in the United States; the Koreans of the Chinese Yanbian, 2 million, of both Koreas' descent |
Government
| Form of government | A one-party state under the Workers' Party of Korea, "the guiding force of the state" by the constitution, and the Kim dynasty — the general secretary of the party and the president of the State Affairs Commission the same man, the supreme leader of the Juche system; the Supreme People's Assembly of 687 elected on a single list with 99.9% turnout and no choice, its Standing Committee the state between sessions, the Cabinet of the premier; the two "friendly" parties of the united front, the Social Democrats and the Chondoists; "the most totalitarian state in the world" by the rights groups' rating, "the people-centered socialist state" by its own; the succession by blood |
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| Supreme leader | Kim Jong Un — the general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea since 10 January 2021 and its first secretary and chairman before, the president of the State Affairs Commission since 29 June 2016 and its first chairman, the supreme commander of the Korean People's Army since 30 December 2011, in power since his father's death of 17 December 2011; born 8 January 1984 by the South's reading, the third son of Kim Jong Il and the dancer Ko Yong Hui, schooled at Bern under a false name, the marshal of 2012; the nuclear tests of 2013, 2016 and 2017 and the missiles of every year, the purge of his uncle Jang Song Thaek in December 2013 and the murder of his half-brother Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur in February 2017, the summits with Trump of Singapore, Hanoi and Panmunjom of 2018–19 that ended in the walkout of Hanoi, the "two hostile states" of 2024, the treaty with Putin and the soldiers sent to Kursk; reappointed general secretary by the Ninth Congress of 25 February 2026 and president of the commission by the Assembly of 23 March 2026 for a fourth term, "the head of state" by the constitution of 2019; "the great leader" and "the respected comrade," the honorifics softened in 2026 by the watchers' count; the weight, the cigarettes and the health the world's guess; his wife Ri Sol Ju, the singer; his daughter Kim Ju Ae, born 2013, at his side at the missile launches since November 2022, at the Beijing parade of September 2025 and the martyrs' cemetery of 14 August 2026, "the great guiding person" of one caption, the heir by the South's intelligence of 2025 and no one's announcement |
| The inner circle | Kim Yo Jong, the sister, the vice department director of the party and the voice of the statements that call the South's overtures "deceptive" and Trump's "a fantasy," the affairs of the South and the world her portfolio by the troika of 2026, her seat on the State Affairs Commission dropped in March 2026 and her power not; Jo Yong Won, the chief aide, the first vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission and the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly since 23 March 2026, the second man of the state in place of Choe Ryong Hae, the elder ousted; Pak Thae Song, the premier of the Cabinet since December 2024; Choe Son Hui, the foreign minister since 2022, the first woman, the Americans and the Russians her brief; Kim Song Nam of the party's international department for China and the bloc; Ri Il Hwan, the propaganda chief raised to the Presidium at the congress; No Kwang Chol at defense, Pak Jong Chon and Jong Kyong Thaek of the military commission; the Presidium of five; the State Affairs Commission of the intelligence, security and prosecution chiefs added in March 2026 — Ri Chang Dae, Pang Tu Sop and Kim Chol Won |
| The Ninth Congress | The Ninth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea of 19–25 February 2026 in Pyongyang, the first since January 2021 and the ninth since 1946, announced in June 2025 for "early 2026" and slipped, some 5,000 delegates in the April 25 House of Culture, the nighttime parade of the missiles on the closing day — Kim's report of victory: the nuclear program "extraordinarily" advanced, "our party's firm will to further expand and strengthen our national nuclear power" and "to increase the number of nuclear weapons and expand nuclear operational means," the five-year plan of 2026–30 of the economy, the "20×10" factories, the housing and the living standards, "the fundamental change" promised; the South "the most hostile entity" with which "there is nothing to discuss," "excluded from the category of compatriots forever," its "complete collapse cannot be ruled out," the Lee government's conciliation "clumsily deceptive and crude"; the United States "the confrontation in the future, too" and "there is no reason why we cannot get on well with the U.S." if it "respects the present position of our state" and "withdraws its hostile policy," the door of September 2025 kept ajar; the Kim Il Sung–Kim Jong Il line dropped for the leader's own, "kimjongunism" in the analysts' word, half the Central Committee replaced, the old guard out; the Assembly election of 15 March 2026 and the session of 22–23 March that ratified it all and amended the constitution; "little room for optimism about near-term engagement," the Korea Economic Institute; "the Ninth Congress was Kim's opportunity to declare victory," Daily NK |
| Parliament | The Supreme People's Assembly — Ch'oego Inmin Hoeŭi — 687 deputies elected for five years on the single list of the Democratic Front, the 15th elected 15 March 2026 with the customary 99.9% and no rival candidate, the first since the 14th of March 2019; its Standing Committee under Jo Yong Won since 23 March 2026 the state's organ between the one or two sessions a year; the Mansudae Assembly Hall; the session of March 2026 that adopted the budget, the plan, the constitutional amendment and Kim's policy speech "On the Tasks Facing the Government of the Republic," the new police system and the neighborhood watch units of the "inminban" for the "alien and unsound elements" |
| The next election | The Supreme People's Assembly in 2031 by the five-year term; the local people's assemblies of the provinces, cities and counties of 2023 due in 2027; the Tenth Party Congress in 2031 |
| The nuclear state | Six nuclear tests at Punggye-ri — 9 October 2006, 25 May 2009, 12 February 2013, 6 January and 9 September 2016, and 3 September 2017 of the hydrogen bomb of about 150 kilotons; about 50 warheads assembled and the fissile material for 40 more by SIPRI's count, the enrichment of Yongbyon and Kangson the "exponential" growth Kim ordered in 2023; the missiles — the Hwasong-15 of 2017 and the Hwasong-17, the solid-fuel Hwasong-18 of 2023 and Hwasong-19 of October 2024 that can reach the whole United States, the Hwasong-20 shown at the parade of 10 October 2025, the hypersonic Hwasong-16, the submarine-launched Pukguksong, the tactical Hwasong-11 of the Russian front, the cruise missiles and the "Haeil" underwater drone; the nuclear-armed status in the constitution since 2012 and the nuclear policy since 2023, the law of 8 September 2022 of the first strike "if the command is threatened"; the satellites of the Malligyong of November 2023; the destroyer Choe Hyon of April 2025 and its sister capsized at the launch of May and righted; "the toughest stand" of the congress; the seventh test the world waits for |
| Russia and China | Russia — the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty of 19 June 2024 signed by Putin at Pyongyang with the mutual defense clause, the alliance of the Cold War restored; the soldiers of the Korean People's Army in the Kursk region since October 2024, about 12,000 in the counteroffensive that retook the region by April 2025, "the liberation of Kursk" of the state's telling, acknowledged by Pyongyang on 28 April 2025, the 6,000 to 7,000 killed and wounded by the South Korean and British counts, the "living bombs" of the youth league's praise, about 11,000 stationed there at the start of 2026 and 14,000 by Kyiv's count, the 1,000 engineers and the 6,000 builders, the memorial of the "martyrs" begun at Pyongyang in October 2025, "the militant fraternity will advance nonstop," Kim said; the shells, the missiles and the artillery to Russia's war, the oil, the food, the air defense and the technology back, the Russian veto of March 2024 that killed the UN panel of sanctions experts, the Moscow flights of July 2025; China — the ally of the war of 1950 and the trade partner of 90% of the commerce, the "lips and teeth" cooled by the missiles and warmed again, Kim at the Beijing parade of 3 September 2025 beside Xi and Putin, the first multilateral stage of his rule, the Yanbian border of the trade and the repatriations; the two the shield against the sanctions |
| The South and the Americans | The "two hostile states" doctrine of 30 December 2023 and the speech of January 2024 that ended the reunification policy of seventy years, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification abolished, the Arch of Reunification demolished, the roads and rails to the South blown up on 15 October 2024, the constitution amended; the South Korean president Lee Jae-myung's overtures since June 2025, the loudspeakers switched off and the leaflets stopped, rejected as "deceptive," the civilian drones of the South that crossed the border from September 2025 to January 2026 the North's proof; the Cheonan sinking of 26 March 2010 and the Yeonpyeong shelling of 23 November 2010, the tunnels and the raids of the decades; the United States — the war, the armistice and the 28,500 American troops in the South, the Agreed Framework of 1994 and the six-party talks of 2003–09, the Singapore summit of 12 June 2018, Hanoi of 27–28 February 2019 that broke on the sanctions and Panmunjom of 30 June 2019, "the biggest enemy" of the Eighth Congress, Trump's "I'd love to meet him" of his Asia trips of 2025 and no meeting, the April 2026 Beijing summit of Trump and Xi that made the watchers wonder, the condition of "the present position of our state"; the sanctions of the UN of 2006–17 and the American of every year, the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team of 11 countries since the panel died |
| The economy of control | The command economy of the plans and the rations that the famine broke — the jangmadang markets of the 1990s that fed the people and made the "donju" money masters, tolerated and squeezed, the crackdown of 2024–26 on the private grain trade and the currency dealers, the executions of the dealers reported, the "20×10" regional factories and the state shops, the won's collapse and the state's war on the dollar; the songbun of the loyalty castes that decides the school, the job and the city; the surveillance of the inminban of every 20 households, the new police system of 2026; the mobile phones of 7 million on the Koryolink and the Kwangmyong intranet without the world; the propaganda of every wall and the portraits of every room |
| Legal system | Civil law of the Soviet model and the Juche — the Central Court, the Central Public Prosecutor's Office, the party above both; the death penalty for the political crimes, the drugs, the South Korean media and the "anti-state" acts, the executions public at the markets and secret in the camps, the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law of December 2020 with its death penalty for distributing the South's films, the Youth Education Guarantee Law of 2021, the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Law of 2023; the "three generations" rule of the camps; the constitution's rights on paper; the UN Commission of Inquiry of 2014 and the crimes against humanity it found; the Otto Warmbier verdict of 15 years for a poster |
| Local government | The people's committees of the 9 provinces, the special cities, the counties and the cities, elected on the single lists in November 2023 for the four-year term, the party committees beside and above them, the party secretaries the real governors; the inminban neighborhood units of the surveillance and the mobilization; the Rason special zone with its own rules; the Samjiyon of the Paektu district built as the "socialist utopia" of 2019 |
| Defense | The Korean People's Army of about 1.3 million active, the fourth-largest in the world, and 7.6 million in the reserves and the Worker-Peasant Red Guards, a quarter of the population under arms by the count — the conscription of ten years for the men and five for the women, the longest on earth; the army of the 1950 invasion and the 4,000 tanks, the artillery of 8,000 pieces within range of Seoul, the 200,000 special forces, the submarines of 70, the navy of the new destroyers, the air force of the MiG-29s and the drones; the Strategic Force of the missiles and the nuclear command; the "songun" of the army first of 1995 and the party first restored; the soldiers in Kursk, the first Korean troops abroad since Vietnam, and the modern war they learned there, the Russian arms in return; the defense industry of the Kanggye tunnels and the shell factories running for Moscow; the parade of the 80th party anniversary of 10 October 2025 and of the congress of 25 February 2026 |
| Foreign policy | Juche and the two patrons — Russia the ally of the treaty and the blood, China the ally of the trade and the border; the states of the friendship, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Syria of Assad, Iran of the missiles, the African partners of the statues and the arms; the 160 states of the diplomatic relations and the 24 embassies in Pyongyang, the Western ones shut since the pandemic and reopening, the Swedes for the Americans; the South rejected, Japan of the abductees of the 1970s–80s and the Japanese wives, the Chongryon; the Trump letters of 2018–19; the United Nations of the sanctions and the seat since 1991; the Beijing parade of 2025 the diplomatic year's summit; the "bloc membership or national interest" of the congress's reading |
| United Nations | Member since 17 September 1991, admitted with the South; the Security Council resolutions of 2006 to 2017, 1718 to 2397, the sanctions on the coal, the iron, the textiles, the seafood, the oil cap and the workers abroad, the panel of experts killed by Russia's veto of 28 March 2024; the Commission of Inquiry of 2014; the World Food Programme of the lean years, its access cut since 2020; the Human Rights Council resolutions of every year the North rejects |
| Other memberships | The Non-Aligned Movement (1975); the ASEAN Regional Forum (2000); the Group of 77; the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and the sports bodies; the treaty with Russia of 2024; not the IMF, not the World Bank, not the WTO; the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty left in 2003; the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation courted; the six-party talks dead |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$30 billion (2024, the Bank of Korea's estimate, 42 trillion South Korean won) — the state publishes no accounts; the South's economy about 60 times larger |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$1,200 (2024, the Bank of Korea) — the South's about US$36,000 |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$1,700 by the CIA's old estimate |
| GDP growth | About 3.7% in 2024 by the Bank of Korea, the highest since 2016, on the shells and the soldiers sold to Russia and the trade with China, after the 3.1% of 2023 and the contractions of the pandemic years; the plan of 2026–30 of the "fundamental change"; the won's market rate that quadrupled in 2024–25 and fell back in 2026, the rice prices of the markets the country's true index; the sanctions the ceiling |
| Economy by sector | Industry about 40%, the mines, the arms, the steel and the chemicals of the state; services about 35%, the state's and the markets'; agriculture about 25% and a third of the workers, the cooperative farms of the rice and maize |
| Currency | North Korean won (KPW) |
| The markets | The jangmadang — the 400 official markets and the street stalls that fed the country after the famine, the women traders and the "donju" money masters of the private buses, the mines and the apartments, the smuggled Chinese goods and the South Korean dramas on the USB sticks; the rations restored in name and the state shops of 2021–26 that took the grain trade back, the market squeeze of the pandemic years and after; the mobile phones of the traders, the cash of the yuan and the dollar; the Daily NK's rice prices the only economic statistic the world reads |
| Mining and the arms | Coal, the anthracite export to China of US$1 billion a year until the UN ban of 2017 and the smuggling since; the iron ore of Musan and the steel of Chongjin's Kim Chaek works; the magnesite, the zinc, the lead, the gold; the arms industry the largest of the state, the Kanggye and Huichon tunnels of the shells, the 12 million shells and the KN-23 missiles sold to Russia since 2023 by the South's count, worth US$20 billion by the higher estimates, the revenue that lifted the growth of 2024; the textiles of the Chinese contracts, the wigs and the eyelashes exported through Dandong as Chinese |
| The hackers | The Lazarus Group and the Reconnaissance General Bureau's cyber units — the Bangladesh Bank heist of US$81 million of 2016, the Sony attack of 2014, the WannaCry ransomware of 2017, the crypto thefts of US$1.3 billion in 2024 and more than US$2 billion in 2025 including the Bybit heist of 21 February 2025 of US$1.5 billion, the largest theft in the history of money by the count, the IT workers of the fake résumés in the American companies; the funding of a third of the missile program by the UN panel's last estimate; the 7,000 hackers of the state |
| Farming and the food | The cooperative farms of the rice of the west and the maize and potatoes of the north, the harvest of about 4.5 million tons against the need of 5.5, the gap the imports of China and the aid of the past fill or do not, the food insecurity of 40% of the people by the UN, the stunting of a fifth of the children; the famine of the 1990s; the fertilizer and the tractors short, the "tree-planting" and the terraces, the floods of the plains; the fish of the two seas and the boats that drift; the Kaesong ginseng; the Wonsan-Kalma resort of 1 July 2025 for the Russian tourists, the "Waikiki" of the east coast |
| Energy | Electricity of about 15 terawatt-hours, a twentieth of the South's per head — the hydropower of the Supung and the Huichon dams for half, the coal plants of Pyongyang and the north, the blackouts that leave the country dark on the satellite maps beside the blazing South; the oil of the Chinese pipeline of 500,000 barrels a year under the UN cap and the Russian tankers over it; the solar panels of the households bought from China; the "20×10" factories without the power to run them |
| Trade and the sanctions | Trade of about US$3 billion a year, 98% of it with China through Dandong and Rason, the exports of the wigs, the watches, the minerals and the seafood, the imports of the fuel, the food and the machines; the Russian trade of the arms, the oil and the workers; the UN sanctions of 2006–17 on nearly everything and the American secondary sanctions, the ships renamed and the transfers at sea, the "shadow fleet" of the tankers; the Kaesong Industrial Complex of the South's 120 firms shut in February 2016, the Kumgang tours ended with a tourist's shooting in 2008, the resort's buildings demolished in 2022; the Rason zone's Russian pier and the Chinese trucks |
| Public finances | The state budget of the Assembly's annual approval without published totals, the defense at 15.9% of it by the declaration of 2024, the "20×10," the housing and the hospitals of the plan; the debt of the 1970s to the West never paid, the Swedish Volvos of 1974 still owed; the Office 39 of the leader's money, the gold, the counterfeits and the cigarettes of old and the hackers of now; the aid of the UN agencies cut and the Russians' grain |
| Income classification | Low income (World Bank) by the estimates; no membership, no data |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airport | Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, the terminal of 2015 and the flights to Beijing, Shenyang, Shanghai and Vladivostok, the Moscow flights of Nordwind since July 2025 the first direct in decades, a few hundred thousand passengers; the Kalma airport of Wonsan for the resort; the Sondok of Hamhung; the military fields of a hundred |
|---|---|
| Airline | Air Koryo, the state airline of 1955, the only one, the Tupolev and Ilyushin fleet of the Soviet years and the Antonovs, the rating of one star of the reviews, the Beijing, Shenyang and Vladivostok routes, the Shanghai charters; the leader's Ilyushin-62 "Chammae-1" and the armored train he prefers |
| Main ports | Nampo on the Taedong estuary, the port of the capital and the West Sea Barrage; Chongjin of the steel and the coal; Rason, the ice-free port of the northeast whose third pier Russia leases to 2060 for the Siberian coal and the arms' return; Wonsan of the east coast and the naval base; Hungnam of the chemicals; Haeju; the fishing fleets of the wooden boats |
| Railways | About 7,435 km (4,620 mi) of standard gauge, four-fifths electrified on paper and slow in fact, the trains of 30 km/h on the worn lines — the Pyongyang–Sinuiju line to China of the trade and the Pyongyang–Rason line to the Russian border, the Tumen bridge of the Moscow train, the longest direct train journey in the world at 10,200 km once a week, the Pyongyang–Beijing international train restored in 2024; the leader's green armored train to Hanoi, Vladivostok and Beijing; the Pyongyang Metro of 1973 of the two lines and the deepest stations of the world at 110 m, the chandeliers and the murals, the Berlin trains of the second hand; the Pyongyang trams and trolleybuses |
| Roads | About 25,000 km (15,500 mi), fewer than 800 paved — the Pyongyang–Kaesong Reunification Highway of 1992 to the DMZ, the Pyongyang–Wonsan highway across the mountains, the Pyongyang–Sinuiju of the trucks, the Pyongyang–Nampo Youth Hero Motorway of ten lanes and no traffic; the ban on private cars, the taxis of the capital, the bicycles of everyone else, the trucks of the army with passengers in the back; the driving on the right; the New Yalu River Bridge of 2014 to Dandong, built by China and never opened |
| The border | The DMZ of 250 km and 4 km, the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom of the blue huts and the summits of 2018–19, the "Bridge of No Return"; the roads and rails of the Kaesong and Kumgang links blown by the North on 15 October 2024; the Yalu bridges of Sinuiju, the Friendship Bridge of 1943 and the broken bridge of the American bombs; the Tumen crossing to Russia of the railway of 1959 and the road bridge building since 2024; the fences and the mines of the sealed north since 2020 |
History in dates
| 2333 BC | Gojoseon founded by Dangun, by the legend — the tomb of 1993 |
|---|---|
| 108 BC | The Han commanderies — Lelang at Pyongyang |
| 37 BC | Goguryeo founded; Pyongyang its capital, 427 |
| 668 | Goguryeo falls; Balhae, 698–926 |
| 918 | Goryeo — Kaesong the capital |
| 1392 | Joseon — the Yi dynasty, to 1910 |
| 1866 | The General Sherman burned at Pyongyang |
| 1905 | The Japanese protectorate; the annexation, 29 August 1910 |
| 1912 | Kim Il Sung born at Mangyongdae, 15 April |
| 1919 | The March First movement |
| 1945 | Liberation, 15 August; the 38th parallel; the Soviets and Kim Il Sung, September |
| 1948 | The DPRK founded, 9 September |
| 1950 | The invasion of the South, 25 June; the Chinese enter, 19 October |
| 1953 | The armistice, 27 July |
| 1968 | The Blue House raid, 21 January; the Pueblo seized, 23 January |
| 1972 | The Juche constitution, 27 December |
| 1983 | The Rangoon bombing, 9 October |
| 1987 | Korean Air 858, 29 November |
| 1991 | The United Nations, 17 September |
| 1994 | Kim Il Sung dies, 8 July; the Agreed Framework, 21 October; the famine, to 1998 |
| 2000 | The first summit, 13–15 June — Kim Dae-jung |
| 2006 | The first nuclear test, 9 October |
| 2010 | The Cheonan, 26 March; Yeonpyeong, 23 November |
| 2011 | Kim Jong Il dies, 17 December — Kim Jong Un |
| 2013 | Jang Song Thaek executed, 12 December |
| 2017 | Kim Jong Nam killed, 13 February; the hydrogen bomb, 3 September; the Hwasong-15, 29 November |
| 2018 | Panmunjom, 27 April; Singapore, 12 June |
| 2019 | Hanoi, 27–28 February; the DMZ meeting, 30 June |
| 2020 | The border sealed, January; the liaison office blown up, 16 June |
| 2022 | The nuclear law, 8 September; the daughter revealed, 18 November |
| 2023 | Putin at Vostochny, 13 September; the satellite, 21 November; "two hostile states," 30 December |
| 2024 | The Arch demolished, January; the treaty, 19 June; the Yalu floods, July; the soldiers to Russia, October; the roads blown, 15 October |
| 2025 | The Bybit heist, 21 February; the destroyer, 25 April; Kursk acknowledged, 28 April; the loudspeakers off, June; the resort, 1 July; Beijing, 3 September; the parade, 10 October; the memorial, October |
| 2026 | The Ninth Congress, 19–25 February; the parade, 25 February; the Assembly elected, 15 March; the session, 22–23 March; the constitution amended, May; Ju Ae at the cemetery, 14 August |
Records & firsts
| The only hereditary communist state | Three Kims since 1948 |
|---|---|
| The most militarized country | A quarter under arms |
| The longest conscription | Ten years for the men |
| The most fortified border | The DMZ |
| The largest stadium | Rungrado May Day, 114,000 |
| The deepest metro stations | Pyongyang, 110 m |
| The tallest unoccupied building | The Ryugyong Hotel, 330 m |
| The largest gymnastic display | The Mass Games, 100,000 |
| The largest theft of money | Bybit, US$1.5 billion, 2025 |
| The longest direct train journey | Pyongyang–Moscow, 10,200 km |
| The largest magnesite reserves | Tanchon |
| A dead man as president | Kim Il Sung, "eternal" |
| The first Asian World Cup quarterfinalist | 1966 |
| The first Korean soldiers abroad since Vietnam | Kursk, 2024 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of North Korea?
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea — Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk, the DPRK — proclaimed on 9 September 1948 in the Soviet-occupied north of a peninsula divided at the 38th parallel after the liberation from Japan of 15 August 1945, under Kim Il Sung, the guerrilla captain the Soviets installed and the "eternal president" the constitution still names; the state of his son Kim Jong Il from 1994 and of his grandson Kim Jong Un since 2011, the only hereditary communist dynasty in the world. The name Chosŏn is the old kingdom's, Joseon of the Yi dynasty of 1392–1910 and the Gojoseon of the legend of 2333 BC, "the land of the morning calm" of the poets; the South calls itself Hanguk and calls the North Bukhan, and since January 2024 the North calls the South a separate and "most hostile" state, not a part of one nation.
What is the capital of North Korea?
Pyongyang — "the flat land" on the Taedong, the capital of Goguryeo from 427, the Sogyong of Goryeo, the city the Korean War flattened and Kim Il Sung rebuilt on the Soviet plan as the showcase of the state — about 3 million people chosen for their loyalty, the Juche Tower of 170 m, the Ryugyong Hotel of 105 stories never opened, the Kumsusan Palace where the two dead leaders lie embalmed, the Rungrado May Day Stadium of 114,000 seats, the largest in the world, the metro 110 m under the ground, the new districts of the 50,000 flats of the 2020s and the traffic wardens of the empty avenues. Hamhung of the east, Chongjin of the northeast, Nampo, the port of the capital, Wonsan of the new beach resort, Sinuiju on the Yalu opposite China and Kaesong of the old kings follow.
How big is North Korea, and how many people live there?
About 120,538 km² (46,540 sq mi) — the size of Mississippi, a little larger than the South — the northern 55 percent of the Korean peninsula between the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, with China across the Yalu and the Tumen for 1,352 km, Russia for 18 km at the mouth of the Tumen, and the South across the Demilitarized Zone of 4 km by 250 that has cut the peninsula since 1953. The last census published, of 2008, counted 24,052,231 people; the United Nations estimates about 26.4 million in 2026, growing at a third of a percent a year on a fertility below replacement, the most ethnically uniform population on earth, four-fifths of it on the fifth of the land that is not mountain, a quarter of it in the army and its reserves.
What are the highest and lowest points of North Korea?
Paektu — Mount Paektu, Baekdu, Changbai to the Chinese — 2,744 m (9,003 ft), the volcano on the Chinese border at the peninsula's northern crown, the sacred mountain of the Korean nation and of the Kim dynasty's myth, its crater holding Heaven Lake, Chon, at 2,190 m, the deepest and highest crater lake of the region, its eruption of 946 among the largest of the last two thousand years; and the two seas. Four-fifths of the country is mountain — the Hamgyong and Rangrim ranges, the Kaema plateau of the northeast, "the roof of Korea," the Kumgang of the "Diamond Mountains" that UNESCO listed in 2025 — and the Yalu, 790 km, and the Tumen, 521 km, are the border rivers, the Taedong of Pyongyang the river of the capital.
What currency does North Korea use?
The North Korean won (ISO code KPW, ₩), of 100 chon, issued by the Central Bank of the DPRK since 1947 and redenominated in the confiscation of November 2009 that wiped out the savings of the market traders at a hundred to one; the official rate near 100 won to the U.S. dollar is a fiction, the market rate the one that matters — about 8,000 for a decade and then, in the collapse of 2024–25, past 30,000, falling back in 2026 as the state squeezed the traders and the Chinese yuan and the dollar became the money of the markets. Clocks keep Pyongyang Time, UTC+9, the standard the North set back half an hour in 2015 and restored on 5 May 2018 to match the South after the first summit; the country drives on the right, on roads with few cars.
Who governs North Korea?
Kim Jong Un — the general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, the president of the State Affairs Commission and the supreme commander, the third Kim to rule since his father died on 17 December 2011, reappointed to every office for a fourth term by the Ninth Party Congress of 19–25 February 2026 and the new Supreme People's Assembly of March, the congress that swept the old guard from the leadership, set a five-year plan to 2030, promised to "increase the number of nuclear weapons," declared the South "the most hostile entity" with which "there is nothing to discuss," and left a door to Washington "if it respects the present position of our state," its nuclear arms. His sister Kim Yo Jong runs the South and the foreign statements, his aide Jo Yong Won the commission and the Assembly, the Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui the Americans and the Russians, and the premier Pak Thae Song the cabinet; his daughter Kim Ju Ae, 13, walks beside him at the parades and the cemetery, the heir in the watchers' reading. Some 11,000 of his soldiers are in Russia's Kursk region for Moscow's war, and no meeting with President Trump has been held.
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