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

noun:

Korean(s)

adjective:

Korean

at birth:

1.047 male(s)/female

under 15 years:

1.03 male(s)/female

15-64 years:

0.98 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.64 male(s)/female

total population:

0.95 male(s)/female (2011 est.)

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)

chief of state:

KIM Jong Un [heir apparent} (since September 2011); note - the rubberstamp Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) reelected KIM Yong Nam in 2009 president of its Presidium also with responsibility of representing state and receiving diplomatic credentials

head of government:

• Premier CHOE Yong Rim (since 7 June 2010);
• Vice Premier HAN Kwang Bok (since 7 June 2010), Vice Premier JO Pyong Ju (since 7 June 2010), Vice Premier JON Ha Chol (since 7 June 2010), Vice Premier KANG Nung Su (since 7 June 2010), Vice Premier KIM Rak Hui (since 7 June 2010), Vice Premier PAK Su Gil (since 18 September 2009), Vice Premier RI Mu Yong (since 31 May 2011);
• 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; (For more information visit theWorld Leaders website)

elections:

last election 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;
• the broad red band symbolizes revolutionary traditions;
• the narrow white bands stands for purity, strength, and dignity;
• the blue bands signify sovereignty, peace, and friendship;
• the red star represents socialism

name:

"Aegukka" (Patriotic Song)

lyrics/music:

PAK Se Yong/KIM Won Gyun

note: adopted 1947; both North Korea and South Korea's anthems share the same name and have a vaguely similar melody but have different lyrics; the North Korean anthem is also known as "Ach'imun pinnara" (Let Morning Shine)

agriculture:

35%

industry and services:

65% (2008 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:

• adequate system;
• nationwide fiber-optic network;
• mobile-cellular service expanding beyond Pyongyang

domestic:

• fiber-optic links installed down to the county level;
• telephone directories unavailable;
• GSM mobile-cellular service initiated in 2002 but suspended in 2004;
• Orascom Telecom Holding, an Egyptian company, launched W-CDMA mobile service on December 15, 2008 for the Pyongyang area and has expanded service to several large cities

international:

• country code - 850;
• satellite earth stations - 2 (1 Intelsat - Indian Ocean, 1 Russian - Indian Ocean region);
• other international connections through Moscow and Beijing (2009)

• no independent media;
• radios and televisions are pre-tuned to government stations;
• 4 government-owned television stations;
• the Korean Workers' Party owns and operates the Korean Central Broadcasting Station, and the state-run Voice of Korea operates an external broadcast service;
• the government prohibits listening to and jams foreign broadcasts (2008)

total:

5,242 km

country comparison to the world: 33

standard gauge:

5,242 km 1.435-m gauge (3,500 km electrified) (2009)

total:

25,554 km

country comparison to the world: 104

paved:

724 km

unpaved:

24,830 km (2006)

males age 16-49:

6,515,279

females age 16-49:

6,418,693 (2010 est.)

males age 16-49:

4,836,567

females age 16-49:

5,230,137 (2010 est.)

male:

207,737

female:

204,553 (2010 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;
• within the country, North Koreans do not have a choice in the work the government assigns them and are not free to change jobs at will

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 (2011)

• 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