North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Sharing a long history, language, and culture with South Korea, from which it was divided in the middle of the twentieth century, it has followed a starkly different path: a secretive, isolated, one-party state ruled by a single family across three generations, with a centrally planned economy and a powerful military. It remains one of the most closed countries in the world.
The northern peninsula shares the deep history of all Korea, from ancient kingdoms such as Goguryeo, centred in the north, through the long Goryeo and Joseon dynasties that unified the land. After Korea was annexed and colonised by Japan in 1910, the peninsula was divided at the end of the Second World War into a Soviet-aligned north and a United States-aligned south. The two states fought the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, which ended in a ceasefire, and the north developed under the leadership of the Kim family.
Korean tradition holds that the first kingdom, Gojoseon, was founded in 2333 BC by Dangun, born of the union between a son of the god of heaven and a bear who had been transformed into a woman. The legend gives the Korean people a divine and ancient origin and is honoured across the peninsula. As history, the figure of Dangun and the precise date belong to founding myth rather than the documented record, though they remain a powerful symbol of Korean identity.
North Korea is a mountainous country, with rugged ranges and forested highlands covering much of its territory, leaving only limited lowland and coastal plains for farming and cities. Its highest peak, Mount Paektu, a volcano on the border with China, is a sacred mountain central to national mythology. The country has coastlines on the Yellow Sea to the west and the Sea of Japan to the east. The cold winters and mountainous terrain have long made farming a challenge.
The flag of North Korea has a broad red band across the centre, edged with thin white and then blue stripes, with a red five-pointed star inside a white circle toward the hoist. The red stands for revolution and the blood of patriots, the blue for sovereignty, peace, and friendship, and the white for purity. The red star is the traditional emblem of communism, reflecting the founding ideology of the state.
North Korea is officially an atheist state, and organised religion is tightly restricted, with traditional faiths such as Buddhism and the indigenous beliefs of Korea reduced to a marginal presence. In their place, the state has cultivated an all-encompassing political ideology, Juche, meaning self-reliance, together with a pervasive cult of veneration around its leaders that, in its rituals and demands of devotion, functions in some ways like a state religion at the centre of public life.
North Korean cuisine shares its roots with the wider Korean tradition, built on rice, vegetables, and the fermented dish kimchi. A celebrated speciality of the north is Pyongyang naengmyeon, cold buckwheat noodles in a chilled broth, considered one of the region's finest dishes. Corn and other grains have featured heavily in the diet, especially during times of shortage. Everyday food is simpler and more constrained than in the south, shaped by periodic scarcity.
Agriculture in North Korea is hampered by its mountainous terrain, limited arable land, a cold climate, and a centrally planned, collectivised system. Rice and maize are the main crops, grown in the valleys and coastal plains, but the country has struggled to feed itself and suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s. Food security remains a persistent concern, and the state devotes great effort to agriculture even as shortages and dependence on aid have recurred.
The division of Korea in 1945 and the Korean War that followed are the defining events of North Korea's existence, leaving the peninsula split along a heavily fortified border and the two Koreas technically still at war. Under the rule of Kim Il-sung and his descendants, the country built a tightly controlled society and, in recent decades, developed nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, making it a persistent focus of international concern and diplomacy.
North Korea has a population of around 26 million people, almost entirely ethnic Korean, making it one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in the world. The society is highly controlled, with movement, information, and contact with the outside world tightly restricted by the state. The largest city is the capital, Pyongyang, a showcase city of monuments and broad avenues whose residents are relatively privileged compared with the rest of the country.
