Cultural life

The compound religious strains of shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism have deep
roots in Korean culture. Although the country has received continuous streams of foreign cultural
influence mainly from China, Koreans have kept their identity and maintained and developed
their unique language and customs. Westernization, begun in the late 19th century, was
accomplished in harmony with Korean tradition and slowly transformed the culture without
much conflict until the 1940s—notwithstanding Japanese attempts to obliterate Korean culture
during its occupation of the peninsula.

North Korea: Arirang FestivalPerformers at the Arirang Festival in P'yŏngyang, North

Korea.© nndrln/Shutterstock.com

After World War II the occupying Soviets did not recognize the Korean traditional family system
or Confucian philosophy; age-old lineage records were burned, and the kinship system was
broken. Through education, people were molded to fit the pattern of party idealism, and private
life and individual freedom became extremely limited. Development plans since the Korean War
have demanded much from the North Koreans in terms of patience and labour. As a result, the
people have had to lead an austere existence. The standard of living improved over time, but
leisure and cultural activities have continued to be regimented and geared toward organized
group activities, such as rallies and museum tours.

The arts
The government is heavily involved with maintaining and advancing the traditional fine arts and
other cultural features as an expression of nationalism. Statues of Kim Il-sung and public art
commemorating the revolution are ubiquitous. The selection of cultural items is based on
communist ideology, and writers and artists attempt to enhance class consciousness and
propagate the superiority and independence of Korean culture. All North Korean writers, artists,
dancers, and musicians are assigned to government institutions such as the National Theatre for
the Arts and the State Symphony Orchestra in P’yŏngyang and provincial organizations of
music, ballet, and drama. The P’yŏngyang University of Music and Dance provides arts
education. Museums have been well supported by the government, and many archaeological sites
have been excavated to promote the growth of a strong nationalistic feeling. Among the
country’s most notable museums are the Korean Revolution Museum and the Korean Fine Arts
Museum in the capital. Archaeological sites include those located in the Nangnang district of
P’yŏngyang and at Kungsan, near Yonggang.

Statue of Kim Il-sung at the Korean Revolution Museum, P'yŏngyang, N.Kor.Edoardo

Fornaciari/Gamma–Liaison

Press and broadcasting

Of the daily newspapers, the Rodong (or Nodong) sinmun (“Labour News”), published by the
KWP Central Committee, and the government’s Minju Chosŏn (“Democratic Korea”) have the
largest circulations. The monthly Kŭlloja (“Workers”) of the KWP Central Committee is one of
the most influential periodicals. The Korean Central News Agency controls the dissemination of
information, and all papers are strictly censored. The government long has recognized the
importance of radio and television as mass media, and they have played a great role in
ideological education. Radio broadcasts reach all parts of the country. Almost all North Korean
households have access to radio broadcasts as a result of a government project to link household
loudspeakers to village receivers. Television broadcasting in North Korea also has been made
available to all parts of the country, and the number of television sets, both imported and
domestically produced, has increased.

Chan Lee Woo-ik Yu

History
The following is a treatment of North Korea since the Korean War. For a discussion of the earlier
history of the peninsula, see Korea.

Bridge crossing the military demarcation line between North and South Korea, P'anmunjŏm,
central Korea.Filzstift

The Kim Il-Sung era

In 1948, when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established, Kim Il-Sung became
the first premier of the North Korean communist regime. In 1949 he became chairman of the
Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), created from communist parties founded earlier. Until his death
in 1994, Kim ruled the country with an iron hand by promoting a personality cult centred on
himself as the “Great Leader” of the Korean people.
The 1950s and ’60s
In the aftermath of the Korean War, Kim purged the so-called “domestic faction”—an
indigenous communist group that had remained in Korea during the colonial period—amid much
scapegoating for the disastrous war. After 1956, as the Sino-Soviet conflict intensified, Kim
shifted his positions vis-à-vis Moscow and Beijing no fewer than three times: from pro-Soviet to
neutral, to pro-Chinese, and finally to independent. During 1956–58, he carried out a purge
against the pro-Chinese group known as the Yenan faction and eliminated a pro-Soviet faction
from the KWP Central Committee.

In 1966, after a visit to P’yŏngyang by Soviet Premier Aleksey N. Kosygin, Kim announced
what became known as the independent party line in North Korea, which stressed the principles
of “complete equality, sovereignty, mutual respect, and noninterference among the communist
and workers’ parties.” From this party line, KWP theoreticians developed four self-reliance
(juche) principles: “autonomy in ideology, independence in politics, self-sufficiency in economy,
and self-reliance in defense.”

In the late 1960s the regime implemented a program for strengthening the armed forces. As part
of the effort to fortify the entire country, more military airfields were constructed and large
underground aircraft hangars were built. In addition, a large standing army and a strong militia
were maintained.

North Korea’s emphasis on strengthening its military forces proceeded hand in hand with its
continued focus on the development of a self-reliant economy. With aid from the Soviet Union,
China, and the countries of eastern Europe, North Korea implemented a series of economic
development plans and made significant gains. But as external aid declined sharply—first from
the Soviet Union beginning in the late 1950s and then from China at the start of the Cultural
Revolution in the mid-1960s—the seven-year plan of 1961–67 was seriously affected, as
indicated by the extension of the plan for another three years.

Bae-ho Hahn Young Ick Lew

From 1970 to the death of Kim Il-Sung

Domestic developments
Two subsequent plans, a six-year plan (1971–76, extended to 1977) and a seven-year plan
(1978–84), also failed to achieve their stated goals. While the country’s economic growth was
hampered by the decline in foreign aid and its heavy expenditures on defense, the continued
priority assigned to heavy industry created a severe shortage of daily commodities and lowered
living standards. Food shortages were aggravated, in part because of an almost threefold increase
in population from 1953 to 1993.

When the 1972 constitution was adopted, the premiership was changed to a presidency, which
Kim Il-Sung assumed; Kim also retained his post as the chairman (renamed the secretary-
general) of the KWP. In 1980 the KWP held its first party congress in a decade. During the
proceedings, Kim revealed his dynastic ambition by appointing his son, Kim Jong Il, to three
powerful party posts, thus making the younger Kim his heir apparent. The younger Kim
consolidated his power and gradually assumed increasing control over the day-to-day
administration of the government until his father’s death in July 1994.

International relations
North Korea remained one of the most isolated and inaccessible countries in the international
community, with severe restrictions on travel into or out of the country, a totally controlled press,
and an ideology of self-reliance. In the 1970s and ’80s the North Korean government maintained
its balanced diplomatic position between the country’s only two significant allies, China and the
Soviet Union, while sustaining a hostile attitude toward the United States. The collapse of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the subsequent dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in the early
1990s left China as North Korea’s sole major ally. Even China, however, could no longer be
relied upon fully, as it cultivated friendly relations with South Korea that culminated when the
two established full diplomatic ties in August 1992.

When it became clear that North Korea could not count on its traditional allies to block South
Korean membership in the United Nations (UN), it retreated from its long-standing position of
insisting on a single, joint Korean seat. Both North Korea and South Korea were admitted to the
UN on September 17, 1991, as “separate and equal” members. Diplomatic breakthroughs
between North and South created more cordial feelings between the two countries, but these
quickly dissipated when suspicion grew that North Korea planned to build nuclear weapons.

Relations with the South

During the late 1960s North Korea had significantly escalated its subversion and infiltration
activities against South Korea—from about 50 incidents in 1966 to more than 500 in 1967. One
of its most brazen acts occurred on January 21, 1968, when a group of 21 North Korean
commandos managed to reach within a few hundred yards of the South Korean presidential
palace in Seoul in an attempt to kill Pres. Park Chung-Hee. Two days later the North Korean
navy forcibly seized a U.S. intelligence ship, the USS Pueblo, and its crew off North Korea’s
east coast and held the crew hostage for nearly a year. In April 1969 North Korea shot down a
U.S. reconnaissance plane in the international airspace over the east coast of the peninsula. North
Korea’s armed provocations continued into the early 1970s, marking the period of highest
military tension on the peninsula since the end of the Korean War.
Captured U.S. Navy ship USS Pueblo docked at P'yŏngyang, North Korea.

The two Koreas subsequently decided to engage in a dialogue amid the new U.S policy of
détente, or relaxation of tensions, toward the Soviet Union and China, North Korea’s two major
allies. The North called off its armed provocations, and talks between the North and South began
at P’anmunjŏm in the demilitarized zone in September 1971. High-level discussions began in
early 1972, culminating in a historic joint communiqué in July, in which both sides agreed on
three principles of reunification: that it be (1) peaceful, (2) without foreign influences, and (3)
based on national unity. High-level discussions continued until August 1973, when they were
unilaterally suspended by the North.

As the Vietnam War wound down and U.S. policies and public opinion became more focused on
domestic issues, North Korea probed in vain for a chance to, in its view, “liberate” the South by
means of a quick military strike. Meanwhile, South Korea tried to forestall a possible withdrawal
of U.S. troops from Korea. In addition, human rights in South Korea became a thorny issue
between the two allies. These trends together served to worsen U.S.–South Korean relations as
well as inter-Korean relations until the early 1980s. South Korea’s President Park was
assassinated on Oct. 26, 1979, and in 1980 Gen. Chun Doo Hwan seized power in South Korea.
Meanwhile, the strongly anticommunist Ronald Reagan was elected president in the United
States, ushering in closer U.S.–South Korean ties and cooler U.S.–North Korean relations.

In the early 1980s North Korea’s policy toward the South alternated, often bewilderingly,
between peace overtures and provocation. In October 1980 Kim Il-Sung unveiled a proposal for
the creation of a confederate republic, the Koryŏ Confederation, through a loose merger of the
two Koreas, based on equal representation. Later in the decade, however, the North engineered
two major terrorist incidents against the South: the first was a bombing assassination attempt
against President Chun in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), on October 9, 1983, that
killed 17 members of the presidential delegation; and the second was the destruction by time
bomb of a South Korean airliner over the Indian Ocean on November 29, 1987, killing all 115
people on board. Subsequently the U.S. government placed North Korea on its list of state
sponsors of terrorism. North Korea was not removed from the list until October 2008.

Because of North Korea’s provocations, there was no official contact between the two Koreas in
the 1980s, although there were some unofficial talks and contacts between their Red Cross
societies. North-South relations reached a milestone in 1991 with the simultaneous admission of
the two countries to the UN in September and a series of prime ministerial talks that produced
two agreements in December: one that pledged nonaggression, reconciliation, exchanges, and
cooperation and a joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The
agreements went into effect in February 1992. However, little came of them, especially after
North Korea became embroiled in the controversy over its nuclear program and as it suspended
all contacts with South Korea in early 1993.

Young Ick Lew Jung Ha Lee

North Korea under Kim Jong Il

Domestic priorities and international cooperation
Kim Il-Sung died on July 8, 1994, and his son Kim Jong Il succeeded him. However, he did not
assume the posts of secretary-general of the KWP or president of North Korea. Instead, he
consolidated his power over several years. In 1997 he officially became head of the KWP, and in
1998 the post of president was written out of North Korea’s constitution—Kim Il-Sung was
given the posthumous title “eternal president”—and Kim Jong Il was reelected chairman of the
National Defense Commission, which became the country’s highest office. (A further revision of
the constitution in April 2009 added the title “supreme leader” to the description of Kim Jong Il’s
position.) His regime adopted the basic guideline of “military first politics” (sŏngun chŏngch’i)
to safeguard it from any unforeseen adverse impact resulting from such events as the collapse of
the Soviet Union and eastern European communist regimes in the late 1980s and early 1990s and
the persistent economic hardships at home.

The death of Kim Il-Sung had come at a critical time for North Korea. The country had been
locked in a dispute over nuclear issues with the United States and the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), which had been denied access by the North Koreans to an experimental
facility at Yŏngbyŏn, where it was suspected that North Korea was diverting plutonium to build
nuclear weapons. In the summer of 1994 the North had been preoccupied with the transfer of
power to Kim Jong Il; however, by October the United States and North Korea had signed a
nuclear accord (the “Agreed Framework”). Under the terms of this agreement, the North
renounced efforts to develop nuclear weapons and pledged to abide by the Treaty on the Non-
proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Non-proliferation Treaty; NPT), in exchange for which the
United States arranged for the financing and construction of two light-water reactors (LWRs)
capable of producing electric power. The agreement restored hope for North-South reconciliation
and a peaceful reunification of the divided peninsula.

The United States, South Korea, and Japan formed an international consortium known as the
Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) for the construction of the LWRs
in North Korea; South Korea was the main contractor. More than two dozen countries eventually
signed onto the project, supplying material and financial help, and construction work progressed
slowly but steadily for a time.

Nuclear ambitions
In late August 1998 North Korea fired a multistage, long-range missile eastward over Japanese
airspace. This new missile capability caused shock worldwide and precipitated a major global
controversy. In addition, suspected underground nuclear facilities were discovered near the sites
whose activities were to have been frozen under the terms of the Agreed Framework.

It was reported in 2002 that North Korea was pursuing work toward producing highly enriched
uranium, which could then be used to make nuclear weapons. In December of that year North
Korea expelled IAEA inspectors from the facility at Yŏngbyŏn. In January 2003 North Korea
withdrew from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and nuclear research operations openly
resumed at Yŏngbyŏn. Multiparty talks were initiated to resolve the various nuclear issues and
ultimately came to involve the United States, North and South Korea, Russia, China, and Japan.
These Six-Party Talks, as they were termed, ended in 2004 without reaching a resolution. In
2005 North Korea claimed to have nuclear weapons capability, although it was unknown
whether the claim was true. After having suspended the LWR project for several years, KEDO
withdrew its workers from North Korea in January 2006, and in May the organization decided to
terminate the project. In October a seismic event was detected at Kilju, North Hamgyŏng
province, and North Korea announced that it had carried out an underground test of a nuclear
weapon. The country conducted another, more powerful underground nuclear test in May 2009,
again near Kilju.

Jung Ha Lee

Internal challenges and international relations

Throughout the 1990s North Korea suffered severe food shortages that caused widespread
starvation. In efforts to help North Korea cope with this crisis, South Korea, Japan, the United
States, and international relief agencies (including the UN World Food Programme), provided
emergency food and medical assistance. The North Korean government’s response inside the
country included officially promoting what it called the “arduous march” (also termed the “meal-
skipping campaign”). Despite these measures, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans died of
starvation in the latter half of the 1990s, and a UN study found that life expectancy had
decreased substantially and infant mortality had increased dramatically. The country’s economic
situation began improving in the early 21st century, in part because of North Korea’s own efforts
to accommodate certain aspects of market economics, including more open trading policies. In
late 2009, however, the economy was thrown temporarily into chaos when a government
currency-reform program reduced the won to 1 percent of its former value while limiting
individuals to exchanging only a small amount of the old currency for the new. The
revaluation—which was aimed in part at curbing private market activity—led to inflation, a food
crisis, and public protests as many citizens saw their savings vanish. The government
subsequently acknowledged the shortcomings of the reform program, and the official identified
as being responsible for its implementation was executed in March 2010.

After Kim Jong Il’s consolidation of power under the 1998 constitution, his regime began to
pursue formal diplomatic relations with many countries, including those of western Europe. By
early 2001 North Korea had established relations with most of the West, amid a friendlier
climate created by the improving inter-Korean relations. The United States, South Korea, and
Japan also had reasons for keeping diplomatic channels open with North Korea, such as
maintaining peace and seeking improvements in the country’s human rights situation. Despite its
successes with other countries, however, North Korea did not make any substantive progress in
its diplomatic talks with Japan and the United States, even after years of direct contact.

Relations with the United States in particular reached a low point in January 2002, when U.S.
Pres. George W. Bush named North Korea, with Iran and Iraq, as part of an “axis of evil” of
countries that were pursuing the development of weapons of mass destruction. Tensions
remained high for several years. Multiparty talks in 2008 resulted in the U.S. government’s
removal of North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in October, as North Korea
took certain previously agreed-upon steps in connection with the pending nuclear issues.

In contrast to the hopeful beginning of the 21st century, however, the ensuing years saw the
erosion of the gains that had been made in international cooperation. The joint ventures
established under the “sunshine policy” after 2000 were suspended by the North within a few
years. North Korea’s launch of several rockets in 2009—which the international community
generally suspected were tests of ballistic missiles—were considered by many observers to be
diplomatically provocative acts.

Relations with the South

After the death of Kim Il-Sung and through the early years of the Kim Jong Il regime, the
situation between North and South remained fairly static, although the countries participated in
multiparty negotiations on nuclear issues and South Korea supplied aid to the North. Hopes were
high at the turn of the 21st century that the issues dividing the two Koreas might soon be
resolved. As part of his policy of reconciliation with the North, which he termed the “sunshine
policy,” South Korean Pres. Kim Dae-Jung visited North Korea in June 2000—the first time any
Korean head of state had traveled to the other side—and the two leaders worked out a five-point
joint declaration that specified steps to be taken toward the ultimate goal of national unification.
A select number of North and South Koreans were permitted to attend cross-border family
reunions. Later that year, at the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, North and South Korean
athletes marched together (though they competed as separate teams) under a single flag showing
a silhouette of the Korean peninsula. (The countries also made a joint appearance—with separate
teams—at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens but failed to reach an agreement to do
likewise at Beijing in 2008.) Kim Jong Il’s government reestablished diplomatic relations with
several Western countries and pledged to continue its moratorium on missile testing.

Efforts to restore a North-South dialogue continued. In May 2007 trains from both the North and
the South crossed the demilitarized zone to the other side, the first such travel since the Korean
War. Later, in October, the two Koreas held a second summit, in which Roh Moo Hyun, the
South Korean president, traveled to P’yŏngyang to meet with Kim Jong Il.

Jung Ha Lee

The December 2007 election of Lee Myung-Bak as South Korean president began another period
of coolness in inter-Korean relations as Lee took a more hard-line position toward P’yŏngyang.
Tensions increased when the North Korean government announced in January 2009 that it was
nullifying all military and political agreements with South Korea. In May of that year it
announced the cancellation of all business contracts with South Korea that pertained to the joint-
venture Kaesŏng Industrial Complex, although, in practice, little changed there. In March 2010 a
South Korean warship, the Ch’ŏnan (Cheonan), exploded and sank in the waters of the Yellow
Sea near Paengnyŏng (Baengnyeong) Island, close to the maritime border with North Korea. An
international team of investigators concluded in May that the explosion had been caused by a
torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine. South Korea soon ended all trade relations with its
northern neighbour and declared its intention to resume propaganda broadcasts along the border.
The North Korean government, denying responsibility for the attack, severed all ties with South
Korea.

Relations between the two countries continued to be mixed. A cross-border reunion for hundreds
of North and South Korean family members took place in late October 2010. However, one
month later, as South Korea was conducting a military exercise off the country’s northwestern
coast, North Korean artillery shells bombarded the South Korean border island of Yŏnp’yŏng
(Yeonpyeong), which also has been the scene of offshore naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.
The shells hit a military base and civilian homes, and there were several casualties. South Korean
forces returned fire and raised the level of military preparedness on the island. The incident was
considered one of the most serious episodes of belligerence between North and South in years.

The rise and rule of Kim Jong-Un

Coinciding with the missile launches and nuclear test in 2009, Kim Jong Il’s youngest son, Kim
Jong-Un (Kim Jong-Eun), began to be mentioned as his possible successor, a status that was
solidified over the following two years. After the death of his father in December 2011, Kim
Jong-Un was declared North Korea’s “supreme leader,” continuing the Kim dynasty into a third
generation.

Kim Jong-Un; Kim Jong IlKim Jong-Un (left) and his father, Kim Jong Il (right), at a military
parade in P'yŏngyang, North Korea, 2010.Kyodo/Landov

Kim Jong-Un’s consolidation of power

Kim Jong-Un effected a friendlier public demeanour than his father had, drawing comparisons to
his grandfather, the “eternal president” Kim Il-Sung, but hopes that the youngest Kim would
forge a new direction for the country were soon dashed. He quickly moved to solidify his
position, executing those who challenged his rule and demoting officials who had accrued
influence under his father. In April 2012 Kim was named chairman of the party’s Central
Military Commission, a title formerly held by his father, as well as first chairman of the National
Defense Commission, the country’s highest administrative authority.
Kim Jong Il; Kim Jong-UnKim Jong-Un saluting the hearse carrying the body of his father,
Kim Jong Il, during a funeral procession on December 28, 2011, in P'yŏngyang, North Korea.
Kim Jong-Un's uncle, Jang Song-Thaek, is standing at attention behind him.AP

Photographs of Kim’s uncle Jang Song-Thaek standing directly behind Kim Jong-Un in Kim
Jong Il’s funeral cortege led many in China and the West to conclude that Jang would exert
significant influence within the new regime. Jang had played a central role in the regime
transition after the death of Kim Il-Sung and oversaw the brutal response to an abortive coup by
the VI Army Corps in 1995. At one time, Jang had been seen as a possible successor to Kim
Jong Il, and international observers believed that he would promote reform within the North
Korean government. Those assumptions proved to be flawed. Jang was branded a traitor, and he
and his entire inner circle were purged and executed in late 2013. Some of the executions were
reportedly carried out with antiaircraft machine guns, and Jang’s name and image were erased
from official party communications.
Kim Jong-EunNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-Eun, accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-Ju,
greeting a crowd during a July 25, 2012, visit to an amusement park in P'yŏngyang. Korean
Central News Agency via Korea News Service/AP

The succession brought great uncertainty to the region and the world. North Korea once again
instituted dramatic escalations of its rhetoric against the United States and South Korea,
including verbal threats of missile attacks against both countries. In April 2013 North Korea shut
down the joint industrial zone in Kaesŏng, though it was reopened some four months later. It was
shut down again in February 2016 by the South Korean side, seemingly for good, and workers
from both countries were recalled home.