<text><span class="style42"></span><span class="style12">KOREA DPR</span><span class="style42">(North Korea)</span><span class="style13"></span><span class="style42">Official name: </span><span class="style13">Chosun Minchu-chui Inmin Konghwa-guk (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). Popularly known as North Korea.</span><span class="style42">Member of: </span><span class="style13">UN</span><span class="style42">Area: </span><span class="style13">122762 km2 (47398 sq mi)</span><span class="style42">Population: </span><span class="style13">22645000 (1993 est)</span><span class="style42">Capital: </span><span class="style13">Pyongyang 2640000 (1986 est)</span><span class="style42">Other major cities: </span><span class="style13">Hamhung 775000, Chongjin 755000 (1986 est)</span><span class="style42">Language: </span><span class="style13">Korean</span><span class="style42">Religions: </span><span class="style13">Daoism and Confucianism (14%), Chondism (14%)</span><span class="style42">GOVERNMENT</span><span class="style13">The Party Congress of the (Communist) Korean Worker’s Party elects a Central Committee, which, in turn, elects a Politburo, the seat of effective power. Unopposed elections are held every four years for the 615-member Supreme People’s Assembly. The Assembly elects the President, Prime Minister and Central People’s Committee, which nominates Ministers.</span><span class="style42">GEOGRAPHY</span><span class="style13">Over three quarters of the country consists of mountains, which rise in the northeast to the volcanic peak Mount Paek-tu at 2744 m (9003 ft). </span><span class="style42">Climate: </span><span class="style13">The country has long cold dry winters and hot wet summers.</span><span class="style42">ECONOMY</span><span class="style13">Over 30% of the labor force work on cooperative farms, mainly growing rice. Natural resources include coal, zinc, magnetite and iron ore. Great emphasis has been placed on industrial development, notably metallurgy and machine-building. The end of barter deals with the former USSR (1990–91) brought a sharp economic decline. Money sent home by North Koreans working in Japan and Russia is the main foreign-currency earner. </span><span class="style42">Currency: </span><span class="style13">Won.</span><span class="style42">HISTORY</span><span class="style13">Korea – a Japanese possession from 1910 to 1945 – was divided into zones of occupation in 1945. The USSR established a Communist republic in their zone north of the 38th parallel (1948). North Korea launched a surprise attack on the South in June 1950, hoping to achieve reunification by force. The Korean War (1950–53; see p. 450) devastated the peninsula. At the ceasefire in 1953 the frontier was re-established close to the 38th parallel. North Korea has the world’s first Communist dynasty, whose personality cult has surpassed even that of Stalin. President Kim Il-Sung (1912–94) and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il have rejected any reform of the country’s Communist system. Since the collapse of Communism in the former USSR and Eastern Europe, North Korea has become increasingly isolated. The country’s refusal to allow international inspection of suspected nuclear weapons installations increased tension in 1994. However, agreement was reached with the USA by which America will supply light-water reactors – which could not be used for nuclear weapons – in return for North Korea dismantling its nuclear development program.</span></text>