North Korea

lowest point:

Sea of Japan 0 m

highest point:

Paektu-san 2,744 m

total:

9.02 cu km/yr (20%/25%/55%)

per capita:

401 cu m/yr (2000)

• water pollution;
• inadequate supplies of potable water;
• waterborne disease;
• deforestation;
• soil erosion and degradation

party to:

Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution

signed, but not ratified:

Law of the Sea

at birth:

1.06 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.03 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

0.98 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.63 male(s)/female

total population:

0.95 male(s)/female (2009 est.)

noun:

Korean(s)

adjective:

Korean

conventional long form:

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

conventional short form:

North Korea

local long form:

Choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk

local short form:

Choson

abbreviation:

DPRK

name:

Pyongyang

geographic coordinates:

39 01 N, 125 45 E

time difference:

UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)

• based on Prussian civil law system with Japanese influences and Communist legal theory;
• no judicial review of legislative acts;
• has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

chief of state:

• KIM Jong Il (since July 1994);
• note - on 9 April 2009, rubberstamp Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) reelected KIM Jong Il chairman of the National Defense Commission, a position accorded nation's "highest administrative authority";
• SPA reelected KIM Yong Nam in 2003 president of its Presidium also with responsibility of representing state and receiving diplomatic credentials

head of government:

• Premier KIM Yong Il (since 11 April 2007);
• Vice Premier KWAK Pom Gi (since 5 September 1998), Vice Premier O Su Yong (since 13 April 2009), Vice Premier PAK Su Gil (since 18 September 2009), Vice Premier PAK Myong Su (since 4 September 2009), Vice Premier RO Tu Chol (since 3 September 2003)

cabinet:

Naegak (cabinet) members, except for Minister of People's Armed Forces, are appointed by SPA

elections:

last held in September 2003; date of next election NA

election results:

KIM Jong Il and KIM Yong Nam were only nominees for positions and ran unopposed

• major party - Korean Workers' Party or KWP [KIM Jong Il];
• minor parties - Chondoist Chongu Party [RYU Mi Yong] (under KWP control), Social Democratic Party [KIM Yong Dae] (under KWP control)

• three horizontal bands of blue (top), red (triple width), and blue;
• the red band is edged in white;
• on the hoist side of the red band is a white disk with a red five-pointed star

agriculture:

37%

industry and services:

63% (2004 est.)

lowest 10%:

NA%

highest 10%:

NA%

• military products;
• machine building, electric power, chemicals;
• mining (coal, iron ore, limestone, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and precious metals), metallurgy;
• textiles, food processing;
• tourism

general assessment:

inadequate system; currently mobile cellular telephone services are available in Pyongyang only

domestic:

• fiber-optic links installed between cities;
• telephone directories unavailable;
• mobile cellular service, initiated in 2002, suspended in 2004;
• Orascom Telecom, an Egyptian company, launched mobile service on December 15, 2008 for the Pyongyang area only

international:

• country code - 850;
• satellite earth stations - 2 (1 Intelsat - Indian Ocean, 1 Russian - Indian Ocean region);
• other international connections through Moscow and Beijing (2008)

total:

5,235 km

country comparison to the world: 34

standard gauge:

5,235 km 1.435-m gauge (3,500 km electrified) (2006)

total:

25,554 km

country comparison to the world: 104

paved:

724 km

unpaved:

24,830 km (2006)

males age 16-49:

6,225,747

females age 16-49:

6,188,270 (2008 est.)

males age 16-49:

4,104,964

females age 16-49:

4,492,374 (2009 est.)

male:

191,759

female:

184,641 (2009 est.)

• risking arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, tens of thousands of North Koreans cross into China to escape famine, economic privation, and political oppression;
• North Korea and China dispute the sovereignty of certain islands in Yalu and Tumen rivers;
• Military Demarcation Line within the 4-km wide Demilitarized Zone has separated North from South Korea since 1953;
• periodic incidents in the Yellow Sea with South Korea which claims the Northern Limiting Line as a maritime boundary;
• North Korea supports South Korea in rejecting Japan's claim to Liancourt Rocks (Tok-do/Take-shima)

current situation:

• North Korea is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation;
• the most common form of trafficking involves North Korean women and girls who cross the border into China voluntarily;
• additionally, North Korean women and girls are lured out of North Korea to escape poor social and economic conditions by the promise of food, jobs, and freedom, only to be forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor arrangements once in China

tier rating:

• Tier 3 - North Korea does not fully comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so;
• the government does not acknowledge the existence of human rights abuses in the country or recognize trafficking, either within the country or transnationally;
• North Korea has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol (2008)

• for years, from the 1970s into the 2000s, citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea (DPRK), many of them diplomatic employees of the government, were apprehended abroad while trafficking in narcotics, including two in Turkey in December 2004;
• police investigations in Taiwan and Japan in recent years have linked North Korea to large illicit shipments of heroin and methamphetamine, including an attempt by the North Korean merchant ship Pong Su to deliver 150 kg of heroin to Australia in April 2003