Major Facts about North Korea - Essay Example

?North Korea History The first Korean Kingdom to be formed was Gosojen by Dangun in 2333 BC, but after many conflicts with the Chinese Han dynasty, the kingdom of Gosojen collapsed and led to the formation of three kingdoms in the proto three kingdoms of Korea period, the kingdoms of Buyeo, Okyeo and Dongye. The three kingdoms were brought together by Silla in 676 BC and led to the north south state period in which the United kingdoms were ruled by Silla, due to internal power struggles within Silla, it was weakened which led to its capture in by emperor Taejo of Goryeo of the Goryeo dynasty in 935. After the collapse of the Goryeo rule in Korea, this led to the rise of the Josen kingdom in honour of the Gojosen one. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, Japanese pirates attempted to attack Korea, however the invasions were repulsed between 1592 and 1598, in the early seventeenth century, Korea became involved in wars with the Manchus kingdom. The rule by Josen closed Korea to trade in the 17th to 19th century with it only being open to China, however at one time an American merchant ship, which was armed, tried to open Korea to external trade in the 19th century was stranded in a river near Pyongyang (Miller, 2004 p102). After the crewmembers were ordered to leave, they killed several Korean nationals that led to the ship being torched by fire ships from Korea but by mid 19th century, Pyongyang had a cautious and a slow approach towards opening its boarders towards the west. Due to the Sino japans war that happened from 1894 to 1895, the treaty of Shimonoseki was signed which led to the end of Josean Empire relying on China. The name Josean Empire was changed to Korean empire, which was highly influenced by Russia, this however ended after the Russo Japan war between 1904 and 1905 when the Korean empire became a protectorate of Japan. When Japan annexed Korea, they imposed a military rule and attempted to stem Korean way of life and traditions, the wealth of the Korean empire was used to profit the people of Japan. This led to formation of pro- rebellion movements from Koreans towards the Japanese rule, in 1919 pro liberations, rallies took place countrywide and about 7000 people were killed. This fuelled more protests against the Japanese that led to the Japanese strengthening their military rule and banning anything related to Korea including forcing the Koreans to change their names to Japanese names, changing the curriculum in schools to reflect that of Japan and the Japanese culture, the Korean language was also banned. With the surrender of the Japanese after the world war ii, the Korean empire was divided into two along the 38th parallel where the soviet union occupied the north and America the south in an agreement that had been signed before, Russia chose Kim II Yung to lead the provisional peoples’ committee for North Korea in 1946. Kim II Yung introduced radical reforms in North Korea that ranged from land reforms to nationalising all key industries in the country. Talks on unifying north and South Korea were held in Moscow and Seoul; however, they did not bear any fruits due to the politics of the cold war that was happening at the same time. Soviet Union military withdrew from North Korea, the American counterparts withdrew from South Korea a year later, this made South Korea weaker and the government of Kim II Yung began exploring the possibilities of invading South Korea. Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin rejected the war proposals that North Korea presented to him, however, with the win of Mao Zedong in China and the indication that he was willing to support the invasion, the Soviet Union approved the invasion in 1950. With Joseph Stalin having approved the war, the north that had a stronger army than the south decide to invade the south, there were battles at the 38th parallel that turned bloody in the Ongjin region, however none of the armies closed the line to the rival’s territory. An year after the approval of an invasion by the soviet union in 1950, the north crossed the line and it turned into a fully fledged war, the weak south forces were overpowered and the north forces successfully captured Seoul and the Rhee government of the south was forced to retreat further south. This led to a civil war between the two neighbours that failed to unify the peninsula, the entrance of the United Nations and American allied forces drove the North Korea forces capturing the cities of Pyongyang and Seoul. However, the entrance of the Chinese forces in to the war complicated the matter for the south that led to recapture of Pyongyang and Seoul. The U.N forces managed to retake Seoul again and the battle stagnated at that point, which came to be known as Armistice line, which after two years the two governments agreed on a boarder truce. With the help of Soviet Union and China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea began the reconstruction of the country that had been left in ruins. Kim II Yung consolidated his power and there were there were four main groups that included Yan’an that constituted Koreans who had returned to China, Soviet Korean, native Koreans and the Kim II Yung group that fought the Japanese (Myers, 2010 p89).. Kim II Yung tried and executed all his dissidents including his own party deputy leader who was accused of being behind the failure of the south to support the north in the fight for unification of state. The immigrants from the south who were sympathisers of the communist rule of Kim were either executed or exiled to the mining and agricultural villages. Disagreements arose on Kim II Yung decision to follow Stanlist economic model rigidly that promoted industrialisation through promotion of heavy industries and ignoring light industries and consumer goods. An attempt to overthrow his government was attempted when he had gone to visit Nikita Khrushchev in Russia by his rivals describing him as a tyrant who was arbitrary and single-handed handled the government. On return, he quelled the attempt and he remained in power mainly because he was seen as a member of the Guerrilla group that had fought for the liberation of the people from the Japanese rule. The relationship with Chinese in this period became sour partly due to the presence of the PLA forces in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and by 1958, the Chinese forces had completely withdrawn from North Korea. Mao Zedong described Kim II Young as an incompetent leader who should have been removed from power for starting the “idiotic war” with the South Korea; Russia was also sceptical about his leadership as the Chinese. Differences between the people’s republic of China and Russia in the 1960’s made the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to pursue a balancing act between the two nations however, by 1964 this proved impossible for North Korea that finally forced the nation to lean towards China. Together with China, they criticised Russia foe being too soft towards United States of America, this was partly led by the fact that North Korea had more in common with China than they had with Russia that included cultural, racial and historical ties (Seth, 2011 p52). The ties with Russia worsened when Kim wanted to buy military material that included missiles, fighter jets and submarines from Russia and the offer was rejected. Relationship between Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and China became sour during the Cultural Revolution in China where the Red guards attacked Kim II Yung regime describing him as a millionaire and a reservist who watched Vietnam being attacked by the American imperialists. However, the relationship between the two countries returned to normal after the Cultural Revolution and the new government in China apologised to North Korea. Another attempt by Kim to seek support from China to invade the south and try to unify the Korean peninsula failed when Mao declined to send troops to help North Korea due to the after effects of the Cultural Revolution in China. Efforts in 1972 to reunify Seoul and Pyongyang did not bear any fruits, as both governments did not reach a common and mutual understanding. Several attempts by the North Korea to assassinate the South Korea leaders were not successful with the most recent being in 1983 known as the Rangoon bombings. The hostility between North Korea and South Korea continued with the north withdrawing all treaties it had signed with the south on mutual non-aggression policy towards each other. North Korea stated that it was not bound by any non-aggression pacts that it had signed with North Korea any provocative act by the south would be met with dire physical consequences from the north. In early 2013, the government of North Korea cut all links including military communication due the United States flying B2 stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula. North Korea went on to threaten a pre-emptive nuclear attack on America on which America said it was ready to protect itself from any attack and attack on any of its allied nations. In early July 2013, North Korea offered proposal to enter in to dialogue with the south that was warmly welcomed by the government of South Korea. Geography The democratic peoples’ of North Korea is located in east Asia and boarders three countries, China along Amnok River, Russia along Tumen river and to the south it boarders South Korea along the Korean demilitarized zone, to the east coast it boarders sea of Japan and to the west there is yellow sea and Korean bay. North Korea covers an area of 120,540 square kilometres of which 120,410 square kilometres is land and 130 square kilometres is water, 1673 kilometres of the land is boundaries; 1416 of these is shared with China, 19 kilometres with Russia and 238 kilometres boundary is shared with South Korea, it is located 400 00’ N and 1270 00’ N. North Korea mainly consists of mountains and ranges; 80 percent of the land in North Korea is uplands and mountains, the highest point in the country is Baekdu Mountains that stand at 2773 metres above sea level and the lowest being the Sea of Japan at 0 metres above sea level. Mount Baekdu is located at basalt lava plateau near the border with China; other mountains in the country are the Hamgyong ranges, which have several peaks that include mountain Gwanmosan which stands at 1756 metres above sea level. Rangrim Mountain in the north central area, Kangnam range on the Chinese border, and Tabeak range which has the Diamond Mountain, the plains in North Korea are small and are spread in Chaeryong and Pyongyang regions. Climate North Korea has a continental climate that can be attributed to its location that lies between 380 and 430 N. There are long winters and snowstorms that are as a result of northern and northwestern winds that originate from Siberia and the average temperatures in the capital of Pyongyang ranges from -3 to -130c in winter which is mainly in January. The summers are hot and humid with a lot of rainfall as a result of southern and southeastern monsoon winds that originate from the Pacific Ocean and bring with them the warm winds from the ocean. The average summer temperatures in the capital of Pyongyang during the summer range from 20 to 290C, which happen in August and average rainfall in North Korea is 317milimetres, which occurs between the months of June and September. Land use Since 80 per cent of the land in democratic peoples’ republic of North Korea is mountains, 2002 statistical estimates from United States of America project that 22.4 per cent of the land is suitable for farming, while only about 1.6 percent being on permanent crops. Natural resources The main natural resources in the democratic people’s republic of Korea are coal, gold copper, fluorspar, iron ore, lead, magnesium, pyrites, salt, tungsten, zinc and water, which is the main source of hydroelectric power for the country. Population Population in the democratic People’s Republic of Korea population stood at 24.45 million people in 2011 with an annual population growth rate of about 0.4 per cent, population density in the country stood at 189 people per square kilometre. 40 percent of the population in this country lives in rural area and the rest 60 per cent live in urban areas, migration in North Korea is not legal however more than 200,000 North Korean residents travelled to china with the hope of entering South Korea. According to united states estimates 23.8 percent of North Koreans are between the ages of 0 and 14 years, 68 per cent between 15 to 64 years and only 8.2 per cent are 65 years or older. The life expectancy is 74.5 among the women and 68.9 for men, an average of 71.6 for the whole population according to a 2006 survey. According to the estimates, the birth rates were 15.1 births per 1000 people while the death rates were 7.1 people per 1000 people, the infant mortality stood at 22.3 births per 1000 live births. In North Korea, the main ethnic group are the native Koreans although there are some small groups that speak Chinese and Japanese. The language that is spoken in the country is mainly Korean with different phonetical dialects across the country, which is usually based on the different provincial boundaries and the North Koreans use a written language that employs the phonetic-based Han’gul (or Choson’gul) alphabet. Since the formation of the democratic people’s republic of Korea, Buddhism has been the main religion practiced in the country, however, there are other religious groups which include Christians of both protestant and roman catholic subgroups, and ‘heavenly way’ followers who are about 3 million. Religious activities in the country are not encouraged by the government especially those in form of organised groups, they are only allowed in religious colleges. Education in North Korea is usually free and compulsory from the ages of four years to fifteen years in the government schools; the national literacy levels in the country are 99 per cent for people who are 15 years and above. Higher education in North Korea is not compulsory and it takes two forms; the academic higher education and higher education for continuing education, the academic higher education schools in Korea are universities, professional schools and technical schools, master’s and doctoral studies are done in the graduate schools. Kim II Yung University and Pyongyang University of science and technology are the most reputable institutions of higher learning in the democratic people’s republic of Korea Health care Health care and health insurance in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is offered free to the citizens, in the period between 1955 and 1986, a lot of emphasis was put into health care that led to the increased no of health institutions from 285 to 2041 and the number of clinics increased from 1020 to 5644 in number. From 1979, the North Korean government put more emphasis on herbal medicine and acupuncture to treat its citizens. But from 1990’s the health status of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had deteriorated due to natural disasters and calamities, economic problems and shortages in food and energy which affected the country at that period in time. In addition to that, most of the hospitals in the country lack basic facilities such as medicine and energy to enable them run smoothly. The main health problem in North Korea among children is malnutrition, its distribution program of food and the ‘military first’ policy, it is estimated that the number of malnourished children is up to 60 per cent of the total number of children with 16 per cent being acutely malnourished. UN world report of 2000 ranked North Korea among the poorest nation in the daily per capita food supply only exceeding Cambodia, Lao and Tajikistan and one of the lowest in the world but one thing that stands out about North Korea is that as at 2007 there was not a single case of human acquire immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). In the country, food and housing have been traditionally heavily subsidised, however the state of the welfare of the people has not improved. In the country, the political class and the military elites have had a better access to the government facilities than the ordinary citizens, poverty levels in North Korea according to United Nations data of 2000 put 27 per cent of the North Korean population at or below the poverty levels. Economy of North Korea The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea runs a socialized, centrally planned government that is heavily industrialised, the means of production in this country are run by the states through state run enterprises or collectivised firms, product prices, wages trade, budget and banking are strictly controlled by the government. Initially, poor domestic economic performance was helped by food aid from the Soviet Union, however with the collapse of the Soviet Union in1991 things deteriorated for the country since the aid from Soviet Union was not forthcoming anymore. The economy of North Korea is managed by the central bank of the Democratic People’s republic of North Korea, the currency that is used in the country is the North Korean won although dollars are used in international trade. The central planning committee that prepare and implements the economic plans of the country supervises the economy, which is fully run by the government and one of the two remaining of the kind in the world with Cuba (Cumings, 2003 p58). The General Bureau of Provincial Industry in each of the regions of the country is responsible for distribution of allocations by the government, supervising the domestic industrial plants, production and sales among other economic activities in the regions. International trade in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been restricted by the isolation policy; however, revision of the policy in 1984 that allowed for foreign investments through joint ventures although it did not attract any significant investments. In 1991, the government established the Rason economic zone in a bid to attract foreign investors from Russia and China, Chinese and Russian firms applied for rights to use the ports at Rason and with that, a railway is being built by Russian firms from Rason to Russia while the Chinese investors are renovating the roads between China and Rason. A report in 1998 by united nations on human development index and gross domestic per capita income of North Korea showed the human development index was a modest 0.776 while the gross domestic product per capita was $ 4058 while average monthly income of Korean citizens to be $ 47 as at 2004. By 2011, the average official salary of Koreans was $ 2 and the actual was $ 15 most of which was got from small illegal businesses, GDP growth by year in North Korea 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 0.3% 3.8% 1.2% 1.8% 2.1% 3.8% ?1.0% ?1.2% 3.1% ?0.9% ?0.5% 0.8% The dominant sector in the economy of North Korea according to a 2002 study is the manufacturing industry at 43.1 per cent, followed by service industry at 33.6 per cent and agriculture at 23.3 per cent. In 2004, the agricultural industry employed 37 per cent of the work force while manufacturing industry and the service sector employed the rest 63 per cent. Some of the major industries in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea include operators assembling, manufacture of armed forces merchandise, chemicals, clothes, electricity, foodstuffs and tourism. In the agricultural sector, it was estimated that about 30 per cent of the agricultural land was in use, which accounted for thirty percent of the global domestic product. Some of the agricultural activities that the country participates in include farming of rice, potatoes, cabbage, apples, soybeans, pulses and sweet potatoes among other vegetables and fruits that also make a significant contribution to the agricultural sector in the country. By the end of 2002 North Korea had about 48,000 horses, 575,000 heads of cattle and 2.6 million goats, livestock products that the country produces in order of the volume include pork, eggs, cow milk, poultry meat, beef and veil and goat meat. Most of the minerals present in North Korea are found throughout the country and they include coal, iron ore, cement, copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold and magnetite, which can be found in large deposits. North Korea exports these minerals in order to obtain foreign currency while some of it is consumed locally and for military purposes. In 1991, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had started trying free enterprise in its largely socialist economy in the Ranjin- Sonbong exceptional trade and industry region and by 2002, the Kaesong exceptional administrative area was started. Recently capitalism has been on the rise with free open-air market being present in the country especially in the Pyongyang and Kaesong regions and at the North Korea and China boarder. The main international trade partners for the North Korea are china and south Korea which in 2005 trade between North Korea and china increasing by 15 per cent to $ 1.6 billion while that between North Korea and south increased by 50 per cent for the first time to reach the $ 1 billion mark. The Korea international travel company that ensures that security officers who double up as tour guides in all the places they go accompany all tourists controls tourism in North Korea. Tourist activities had been very restricted for citizens of South Korea and the United States of America who could only have visited the country during the Arilang festival, however the rule was abolished in 2010. Special tourist places for the citizens of these two countries have been set and include mount Kumgang with the mount Kumgang tourist region set aside for the administrative region purposes of the region, there are tourists hotel all over the country with the largest being Yanggakdo International Hotel. Energy The main sources of energy for the North Korea economy are coal and hydroelectric power; in 2003, 82 per cent of the energy consumption was from coal which totalled to 32.3 million tons of coal, lignite and peat. In 2001, North Korea, energy produced from hydroelectricity was 69 per cent of the total electricity produced while the remaining 31 per cent of the electricity was produced from coal powered thermal plants. Six per cent of the total energy consumption of the country came from coal, North Korea produces about 138 barrels per day of oil while its consumption levels are at 25000 barrels per day, this means that the most of the oil the country consumes is imported (Chancel, Poivert, & Fenby, 2007 p89). Banks in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were closed in 1946 and 1947 leaving only the central bank and the farmers’ bank that was later incorporated in the central bank in the year 1959. Foreign trade bank was formed to deal with the foreign trade activities of the bank, from the year 1978 six state owned banks have been created to deal with foreign exchange and foreign exchange of the country. Transport and communication The transport system in the Democratic people’s Republic of Korea consist of railways, road and air transport, the amount of roads North Korea stretching to about 31200 kilometres of which only 1997 kilometres were tarmacked and 682 kilometres comprised of highways with multiple lanes. The railways are controlled by the Korean state railway that is run by the government under the ministry of railways, according to official statistics the railway in 2002 was 5214 kilometres and construction of setting a fully electric controlled rail system in the country. In the air transport, North Korea had 78 airports of which 35 are tarmacked while the rest 43 are yet to be tarmacked, the airports are located evenly in the country and mainly aircrafts from China and Russia use them. Communication in the country is mainly carried by the Koreans’ workers party with all the radio stations and public broadcast being owned by the media, however almost the whole of the population has access to a radio or public government loud speakers. Close to a million telephone booths were in use in North Korea in 2002 however the mobile phones that were introduced at the turn of the millennium were withdrawn by the government for unknown reason and they are now only found on border towns with Chinese where cellular network is available. Government The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea is a Juche or ‘self reliant’ state that uses departmentalisation system of ministries to run the government. The country has had only one president Kim II sung and when he died in the year 1994, he was declared the eternal president of the country and was put in the tomb of Kumsusan Palace of sun in Pyongyang. The assembly is composed of nominated people from the three main parties in North Korea; these parties however have minimal influence since the rule is by the supreme leader who holds absolute power in the running of the affairs of the state. Political environment is tightly controlled in North Korea with political dissidents being sent to special labour camps where they are supposed to live a life of hard labour and those who attempt to escape are either executed or transferred to a different prison with the special labour camps. Diplomatic relations North Korea has maintained close friendship with Russia and china who are its major allies and who have been giving the country aid, however, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, aid from Russia ceased and it now relies on a substantial aid that is sent from China. Nuclear program in North Korea increased tension with the south and the six party talks began to end the tension that was building between the two governments of Korea, Japan, People ’s Republic of China, Russia and the United States of America. Military . According to the United States data, the democratic people’s republic of North Korea has the fourth largest army in the world which is about 1.21million military personnel with 20 per cent of the men between the ages of 15 years and 54 years being in the regular forces. North Korea has the highest military personnel per capita in the world, which stands at one army officer in every 25 civilians and is made of ground forces, air forces, navy forces, special task forces and rocket forces (Worden, 2008 p56). In 2005, the government of North Korea admitted to having nuclear weapon and calls by the international community for the country to cease its nuclear program have been a major concern with sanctions being imposed against the country by the United Nations. Administrative zones The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has its capital as Pyongyang, a special city Rason and nine provinces that include South Pyongan, North Pyongan, Chagang, South Hwanghae, North Hwanghae, Kangwon, South Hamyong, North Hamyong and Ryanggang. References Chancel, P., Poivert, M., & Fenby, J. (2007). North Korea. New York, Thames & Hudson. Cumings, B. (2003). North Korea: another country. New York, New Press. DEMICK, B. (2009). Nothing to envy: ordinary lives in North Korea. New York, Spiegel & Grau. Miller, D. A. (2004). North Korea. San Diego, Greenhaven Press. Myers, B. R. (2010). The cleanest race: how North Koreans see themselves and why it matters. Brooklyn, N.Y., Melville House Seth, M. J. (2011). A history of Korea: from antiquity to the present. Lanham, Md, Rowman & Littlefield. Worden, R. L. (2008). North Korea: a country study. Washington, DC, U.S. G.P.O. Read More