668 A.

D: Ancient Korea
People have been living on the Korean peninsula since prehistoric times,
slowly developing their own distinct culture and civilization. The Korean
people were first united by the Silla Dynasty in 668 A.D. Since then, Korea
has had to contend with the expansionist ambitions of its neighbors.

1910: Japan Colonizes Korea

In 1910, the Joseon Dynasty ended with Japan’s annexation and
colonization of Korea. Koreans remember the Japanese colonial rule as a
brutal experience. Resistance groups formed in Korea and China, mostly
adopting leftist politics in reaction to the right-wing Japanese administration.
Memories of the Japanese Imperial Administration’s oppression continue to
haunt relations between the people of both Koreas and Japan today. Korea
also began to modernize during this period, and the city of Pyongyang in
particular became a vibrant center for Christianity and western culture. .

1945: The Division of the Korean People

Following Japan’s defeat in 1945 the Soviet Union and United States agreed
to split the post-war control of the Korean peninsula between themselves.
On August 10, 1945 two young U.S. military officers drew up a line
demarcating the U.S. and Soviet occupation zones at the 38th parallel. The
divide should have been temporary, a mere footnote in Korea’s long history,
but the emergence of the Cold War made this a seminal event. Seeking to
ensure the maintenance of their respective influences in Korea, the U.S. and
USSR installed leaders sympathetic to their own cause, while mistrust on
both sides prevented cooperation on elections that were supposed to
choose a leader for the entire peninsula. The United States handed control
over the southern half of the peninsula to Syngman Rhee, while the Soviet
Union gave Kim Il-sung power over the north. In 1948, both sides claimed to
be the legitimate government and representative of the entire Korean
people.

August 15, 1948

Syngman Rhee declares the formation of the Republic of Korea in Seoul,
claiming jurisdiction over all of Korea..

September 8, 1948
Kim Il-sung declares the formation of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea in Pyongyang, also claiming jurisdiction over all of Korea.

1950: The Korean War Begins

June 25, 1950
In 1950, Kim Il-sung attempted to unify Korea under his rule through military
force, starting the Korean War. By far the most destructive and divisive
event in Korean history, the war altered the life of almost every Korean
person. Some historians claim that the U.S. military dropped more napalm
on urban centers in Korea than Vietnam. The bombing campaigns reduced
Pyongyang to rubble, and North Korea’s population was reduced by 10%.

June 27, 1953

Both sides eventually signed the armistice ending major hostilities in 1953.
The DMZ (demilitarized zone) was established at almost the same position
as the border before war broke out, separating millions of families caught on
opposite sides of the border.

1953-1970s: Building a Stalinist State

From 1953 to the 1970s North Korea was considered by some outside
observers to be a successful state. During this period, many North Koreans
were actually better off than their southern brethren.

Kim Il-sung remodeled North Korean society along the lines of

Juche—North Korea’s radically nationalistic ideology promoting Korean
autonomy. The state-seized control of all private property and organizations.
Officially, everything in the country, from businesses to the clothes on one’s
back, belonged to the North Korean state. The regime rebuilt Pyongyang as
a socialist capital and erected numerous monuments to Kim Il-sung, part of
nationwide efforts to build a cult of personality to secure obedience by the
people. The state took control of all media and restricted international travel.
Kim Il-sung also worked constantly to centralize power under the Workers’
Party of Korea under his rule, and implemented a perpetual purge to rid the
country of potential internal opponents to his rule.

Songbun
Massive inequalities began to emerge in North Korean society. The regime
introduced the songbun system, which is still in place today. Under this
system the entire population were sorted into different social classes
according to one’s perceived loyalty to socialism and the regime. This
classification determined the course of people’s lives. One’s songbun
dictates the schools one can attend, the occupations one can be placed in,
and even where one can live.At the time, the regime expelled around a
quarter of the population of Pyongyang to the outer provinces for being of
low songbun. For more on songbun, see this blog post.

The regime silenced anyone who opposed the system with extreme
prejudice. Free speech became an offense punishable by imprisonment or
even death. Worse, when one was arrested, up to three generations of their
family would be sent to political prison camps. The regime instructed
children to inform on their parents, and neighbors to inform on each other.
Under these conditions, the North Korean people became fearful and
distrusting of each other.

Stagnation
By the 1970s, the initial gains of postwar reconstruction and modernization
had dissipated, and Kim Il-sung’s ideologically driven governance failed to
produce prosperity. North Korea was also highly dependent on trade and aid
from the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, so when the economies of those
countries began to decline it greatly affected North Korea’s economy. The
people’s quality of life stagnated in the 1980s and began to decline until the
collapse of the USSR in 1991, at which point the North Korean socialist
command economy stopped functioning. Poor agricultural policies and
environmental mismanagement increased vulnerability to extreme weather
conditions and brought increasingly meager crop yields. To make matters
worse, the regime had lost allies to fall back on when the economy failed.
North Korea’s reserves were quickly running out. These were the
circumstances the country found itself in when Kim Il-sung died in 1994.

Economic Collapse
Kim Jong-il took power in the post-Cold War era when North Korea was on
the brink of disaster. Realizing the need to handle both external and internal
threats, Kim Jong-il instituted a “military first” policy that prioritized the
military and elites over the general population to an even greater extent than
before. This policy made the coming crisis even worse for the average North
Korean. Many North Koreans blame Kim Jong-il’s leadership for the famine.
In reality, Kim Jong-il’s policies exacerbated a crisis that was long in the
making.

The economic collapse and subsequent famine in North Korea had its peak
in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is estimated that up to one million people
died—roughly 5% of the population. Even many of those that survived
suffered immensely. Starvation in childhood has stunted the growth of an
entire generation of North Koreans. The North Korean government had to
lower the minimum required height for soldiers because 145 cm (4 feet 9
inches) was too tall for most 16-17 year olds. In Barbara Demick’s book
“Nothing to Envy”, a North Korean doctor tells of how even she became
desperately hungry. After fleeing to China, she discovered a bowl of food left
out for a dog. Upon examining the white rice and generous chunks of meat,
she concluded that “dogs in China ate better than doctors in North Korea.”

July 8, 1994
Kim Il-sung dies and his son Kim Jong-il takes over as leader.

Social Changes
The collapse of the command economy led to widespread social changes.
The need for food drove the North Korean people away from the regime’s
control, as when the government stopped providing food, the survivors
found other ways to feed themselves. People foraged and sold anything
they could to buy food at small, illegal markets that began to spring up,
creating a process of bottom-up marketization. Some fled to China, leading
to a wave of refugees from North Korea, while information about the outside
world slowly began to flow back into the country. Some resorted to
prostitution or crime. What was once a highly ordered and controlled society
gave way to a disorganized and fluid society, with new independent paths to
wealth and power for those who defied the regime and pursued the markets.
These social effects would continue even after the worst of the famine had
passed.

2000s: The People & Markets Prove Their

Resilience
By the early 2000s, the people began to recover. The markets, which initially
emerged as a survival mechanism, gradually grew to encompass a broader
range of goods and services and became better established. The markets
today are the major source of food for ordinary North Koreans. South Korea
also adopted the “Sunshine Policy”, in which it gave unconditional aid to
North Korea, and increased economic cooperation between the Koreas.
Established in 2003, the Kaesong Industrial Complex just north of the DMZ
was part of this policy and now allows South Korean companies to hire over
50,000 North Korean workers. China also gradually strengthened its
economic relationship with North Korea, and today is by far North Korea’s
most important economic and political partner. Nevertheless, ordinary North
Koreans continue to face the severe challenges of chronic food shortages
and grinding poverty, while their basic freedoms are curtailed by a
repressive regime whose number one concern is staying in power.

Always uneasy about the growth of the markets, in late 2009 the regime
made their most drastic attempt to restrain the markets to date: a currency
reform aimed at wiping out private wealth. The resultant market disruption
and rapid inflation reversed the people’s hard-won progress, and even
regime projects were derailed. North Korean refugees have described this
as a watershed moment in their diminishing belief in the regime, with
anti-regime sentiment so strong that it even rose to the surface in some
communities. It is now absolutely clear to the regime that the markets are a
fact of life they must learn to live with.

December, 2011
Kim Jong-il dies and his son Kim Jong-un takes over as leader.

Now: Moving into the Third Kim Era

In December 2011, Kim Jong-il died and his son Kim Jong-un inherited
control of the nation. Thought to be just 27 or 28 years old at the time of his
succession, Kim Jong-un was largely unknown to the North Korean people
as well as to the outside world. North Koreans that escaped the country in
2011 told us that there had not been a lot of propaganda about Kim Jong-un
during that year. By contrast, Kim Jong-il was much better known to the
North Korean people when he came to power in 1994.

In his first years in power, Kim Jong-un has implemented a new PR style that
has portrayed him as a modern version of his grandfather, while purging,
demoting and promoting regime officials to secure his power base. The new
leadership also moved to crack down on illegal cross-border movement and
the inflow of foreign media, increasing repression in the border regions and
reducing the number of defectors who managed to make it to South Korea
by almost half. Meanwhile, there have been signs of cautious
experimentation with economic liberalization in order to adapt to the reality
of the entrenched de facto market economy inside the country.

North Korea’s history is far from over. In fact, it may be entering its most
interesting phase. The people are becoming increasingly empowered and
the grassroots changes spreading across North Korean society are steadily
increasing the people’s physical and psychological independence from the
regime, making the system as it is currently structured unsustainable. We
cannot know the pathway that North Korea’s change and opening will take,
but change and opening will happen, and the future of North Korea will be
increasingly driven by the North Korean people themselves.

https://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/learn-north-korea-history/?gclid=
EAIaIQobChMI5qi2gdiV5AIVC6yWCh3yjQxJEAAYASAAEgLBBfD_BwE
1. THERE ARE ONLY 15 APPROVED
HAIRCUTS
On the positive end, it’s gender equal as both sexes have 15
haircuts that are approved by the regime. However, none of
the men’s approved haircuts are similar to their supreme
leader’s.

2. THEY DON’T FOLLOW THE SAME

TIMELINE AS WESTERN COUNTRIES
The North Korean calendar counts the year after its founder,
Kim II-Sung’s birthday in 1912. So, while we’re living in 2019,
over there it’s still year 107.

3. HOME TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST

STADIUM
With seats for 150.000 people, the Rungrado Stadium in
North Korea is without a doubt the biggest stadium in the
world. Michigan Stadium comes at second place with over
40.000 seats less.

4. THERE IS A ‘THREE GENERATIONS

OF PUNISHMENT’ POLICY
If someone breaks the law, it’s not only that person who gets
punished, but the whole family for three generations
forward.
5. THE NORTH KOREAN ARMY IS
ESTIMATED TO HAVE MORE THAN 1.2
MILLION SOLDIERS
While it’s not the most powerful military force in the world,
experts say that the North Korean army is definitely the
largest with more than 1.2 million soldiers.

6. KIM IL-SUNG BOUGHT 1,000 VOLVO

CARS FROM SWEDEN BUT NEVER
PAID FOR THEM
So, as a Swede, this is definitely one of the most random
facts about North Korea. The founder Kim II-Sung bought
Volvo cars from Sweden in the ’70s but never paid for them.

Apparently, the Swedish government still sends invoices

each year, and the current debt is around 2.8 million USD.

7. THERE ARE ONLY 3 TV-CHANNELS

Korean Central Television (KCTV) is the main channel and
it’s available all over the country. The others are only
available on the weekends.

8. IT’S THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE

WORLD THAT HAS A US NAVY SHIP
CAPTURED
The American USS Pueblo spy ship was captured in 1968,
with 83 Americans on-board. They were kept for 11 months,
and the whole situation nearly escalated into a full-scale war
between the two nations.
9. THERE IS A HUGE DEMILITARIZED
ZONE (DMZ)
Between South and North Korea, there is a huge
demilitarized zone, known as DMZ. It’s 248 kilometers long
and about 4 kilometers wide.

10. ONLY ABOUT 5,000 WESTERN

TOURISTS PER YEAR
Most tourists who come here are from China, and many go
by buses. As for Western tourists, only about 5000-6000 visit
each year. The number is increasing though as more and
more people get curious and want to see what it’s like.

11. WOMEN ARE A FULLY

INTEGRATED PART OF THE
COUNTRY’S WORKFORCE AND
MILITARY
While the women are integrated into society, there is a huge
downside that many defectors have described. Many women
are forced to attend parties and fulfill sexual duties to men
who work for the regime.

Officials go through the schools around the country and

handpick teenage girls for “work”. There are also several
reports from defectors of domestic violence towards women.

12. HUMAN FECES IS USED FOR

FERTILIZING
Due to poverty, farmers need to use human feces as fertilizer.
This is increasing the risk for diseases and spread of
parasites.
13. PAEKTUSAN IS THE TALLEST
MOUNTAIN AT 2744 METERS
Mount Paektu is nearly 1000 meters taller than the highest
mountain in South Korea, the Hallasan Mountain on Jeju
Island.

14. NORTH KOREA HAS 51 “SOCIAL

CATEGORIES”
While each society has some form of classes depending on
several factors, no other nation is known to have categories
over their citizens depending on how loyal they are to the
government.

If you’re a very loyal citizen, then you’ll be put into a higher

ranked social category.

15. PYONGYANG IS ONLY FOR THE

ELITE
All citizens of Pyongyang are known as trustworthy citizens
that are loyal to the regime. Kim Jong Un and the
government decides who and if someone is worthy to live in
the capital.

Life is very different in Pyongyang, and as of 2018, there are

even restaurants serving international food, such as
hamburgers and pizza.
BONUS FACT
Every North Korean household has been given a
government radio that can’t be turned off. You’re only
allowed to turn the volume down.

5 X RANDOM FACTS ABOUT NORTH

KOREA
 Kim Jong Il is said to have scored a perfect 300
score the first time he went bowling, and the first
time he played golf he managed to do 11
hole-in-ones.
 It is illegal to wear jeans
 Parents who send their kids to school are required
to provide their own desks and chairs
 Kim Jong Un supposedly learned how to drive at
the age of 3
 Kim Jong-il never used a toilet. He was so perfect
that he didn’t need to urinate or defecate

GENERAL FACTS ABOUT NORTH

KOREA
Below are some general info such as total population, land
area, biggest lake, highest mountain and other general facts
about North Korea that might be interesting to know.

 Total Population: 25,49 million people

 Capital: Pyongyang
 Life expectancy: 71,68 years
 Highest Mountain: Mount Paektu (2744 meters)
 Land area: 120,540 km2 (46,540 square miles)
 Largest Lake: Heaven Lake
 National Day: 9th September
 Government: Unitary one-party republic
 President: Kim Jong-un
 Currency: North Korean won (₩) (KPW)
 Official language: Korean
 Religion: No official statistics. 63% is supposedly
irreligious
 Member of Nato: No
 National song: “Aegukka”
 Time zone: UTC+9 (Pyongyang Time)
 Country Number/Prefix: +850
 Country Code: KP

THE BIGGEST CITIES IN NORTH

KOREA
If you’re looking for facts about North Korea, it might also be
interesting to know which are the biggest cities. Here’s a list
of the top 10 biggest North Korean cities ranked after
population.

 Pyongyang
 Hamhung
 Chongjin
 Nampo
 Wonsan
 Sinuiju
 Tanchon
  Kaechon
 Kaesong
 Sariwon

FLAG OF NORTH KOREA

MAP OF NORTH KOREA