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Territory in northeast Asia, nominally ruled since 1948 by the Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (abbreviated as DPRK, PRK, DPR Korea or Korea DPR), is a country in East Asia constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city. To the north and northwest, the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok (known as the Yalu in Chinese) and Tumen rivers; it is bordered to the south by South Korea, with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two. Nevertheless, North Korea, like its southern counterpart, claims to be the legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. Both North Korea and South Korea became members of the United Nations in 1991.

Geographical type: Territory

Latitude: 40° N — Longitude: 127° E

Area: 120,540 km²

ISO 3166-2 code: KP

Measures of Freedom

North Korea | Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2022
2016: Status: Not Free, Aggregate Score: 3, Political Rights: 7, Civil Liberties: 7
In October 2015, North Korea celebrated the 70th anniversary of the ruling Korean Workers' Party (KWP) with a large military parade in Pyongyang and a speech by leader Kim Jong-un. Kim reportedly granted amnesty to thousands of prisoners in the run-up to the event, though political prisoners were apparently excluded. Also in October, state media announced plans to convene a seventh congress of the KWP in May 2016, which would be the first party congress since 1980.

Articles

Bush's Learning Problem, by Joseph Sobran, The Reactionary Utopian, 12 Oct 2006
Discusses George W. Bush's behavior with regard to his enemies, pondering he may have never learned one of the fundamental concepts of chess strategy
As a North Korean general told an American reporter, 'We see what you're doing to Iraq. Well, you're not going to do it to us!' It seems that Kim Jong Il, a pretty evil sort of guy, wasn't in any mood for regime change, or democratic revolution, so he drew his own practical conclusion from Bush's words: 'I’d better get me some nukes!' ... If only Kim had known Bush would find his nukes 'unacceptable,' he might have changed his ways and held free elections! ... It would have been inspiring to see millions of emaciated North Koreans triumphantly holding up purple forefingers as they emerged from the voting booths.
Related Topic: George W. Bush
North Korea's Nukes: Why Now?, by Justin Raimondo, 11 Oct 2006
Comments on the first North Korean nuclear test and the political prospects for the Korean peninsula, considering also China and the United States
The rulers of the Hermit Kingdom have been planning this for some 50-plus years ... The possession of a nuke is an insurance policy against regime change. Yet the question is: why now? ... When longtime "Glorious Leader" Kim Il-Sung died, there was, at first, some question as to who would succeed him: the father had made his intention clear that his son was to take the helm, but this was by no means foreordained – there was competition for the job, coming from the military and the various factions within the Workers Party of Korea, the one-party dictatorship that has ruled North Korea since the end of World War II.

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "North Korea" as of 1 Oct 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.