North Korea

lowest point:

Sea of Japan 0 m

highest point:

Paektu-san 2,744 m

agricultural land:

21.8%;

• arable land 19.5%;
• permanent crops 1.9%;
• permanent pasture 0.4%

forest:

46%

other:

32.2% (2011 est.)

total:

8.66 cu km/yr (10%/13%/76%)

per capita:

360.6 cu m/yr (2005)

• 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:

1.05 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.03 male(s)/female

15-24 years:

1.02 male(s)/female

25-54 years:

1 male(s)/female

55-64 years:

0.9 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.53 male(s)/female

total population:

0.94 male(s)/female (2015 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+8.5 (13.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

note: on 15 August 2015, North Korea reverted to UTC+8.5, a time zone that had been observed during pre-colonial times

• previous 1948, 1972;
• latest adopted 1998 (during KIM Jong Il era);
• revised 2009, 2012, 2013 (2015)

description:

• unicameral Supreme People's Assembly or Ch'oego Inmin Hoeui (687 seats; members directly elected by absolute majority vote to serve 5-year terms);
• note - the Korean Workers' Party selects all candidates

elections:

last held on 9 March 2014 (next to be held in March 2019)

election results:

• percent of vote by party - NA;
• seats by party - NA;
• ruling party approves a list of candidates who are elected without opposition;
• a token number of seats are reserved for minor parties

highest court(s):

Supreme Court or Central Court (consists of the chief justice and 2 "People's Assessors" and for some cases, 3 judges)

judge selection and term of office:

judges elected by the Supreme People's Assembly for 5-year terms

subordinate courts:

provincial, municipal, military, special courts; people' courts (lowest level)

major party:

Korean Workers' Party or KWP [KIM Jong Un]

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 stand 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's 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)

• 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

agriculture:

37%

industry and services:

63% (2008 est.)

lowest 10%:

NA%

highest 10%:

NA%

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 15 December 2008 for the Pyongyang area, has expanded service to several large cities and now has a 1-million-person subscriber base

international:

• country code - 850;
• satellite earth stations - 2 (1 Intelsat - Indian Ocean, 1 Russian - Indian Ocean region);
• other international connections through Moscow and Beijing (2011)

• no independent media;
• radios and TVs are pre-tuned to government stations;
• 4 government-owned TV 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:

7,435 km

standard gauge:

7,435 km 1.435-m gauge (5,400 km electrified)

note: figures are approximate; some narrow-gauge railway also exists (2014)

country comparison to the world: 33

total:

25,554 km

paved:

724 km

unpaved:

24,830 km (2006)

country comparison to the world: 100

total:

158

by type:

bulk carrier 6, cargo 131, carrier 1, chemical tanker 1, container 4, passenger/cargo 1, petroleum tanker 12, refrigerated cargo 2

foreign-owned:

13 (Belgium 1, China 3, Nigeria 1, Singapore 1, South Korea 1, Syria 4, UAE 2)

registered in other countries:

6 (Mongolia 1, Sierra Leone 2, unknown 3) (2010)

country comparison to the world: 37

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 who are subjected to forced labor, forced marriage, and sex trafficking;
• many North Korean workers recruited to work abroad under bilateral contracts with foreign governments are subjected to forced labor and do not have a choice in the work the government assigns them, are not free to change jobs at will, and face government reprisals if they try to escape or complain to outsiders;
• thousands of North Koreans, including children, in prison camps are subjected to forced labor, including logging, mining, and farming;
• many North Korean women and girls, lured by promises of food, jobs, and freedom, have migrated to China illegally to escape poor social and economic conditions only to be forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor arrangements

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 continued to participate in human trafficking through its use of domestic forced labor camps and the provision of forced labor to foreign governments through bilateral contracts;
• no known investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of trafficking offenders or officials complicit in trafficking-related offenses were conducted;
• the government also made no efforts to identify or protect trafficking victims and did not permit NGOs to assist victims (2014)

• 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