North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) (Hangul: 조선민주주의인민공화국), is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea. The Amnok River is the border between North Korea and People's Republic of China. The Tumen River in the extreme north-east is the border with Russia.

The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was occupied by Japan following the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. It was divided into Soviet and American occupied zones in 1945, following the end of World War II. North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations-supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones. Both North and South Korea claimed sovereignty over the peninsula as a whole, which led to the Korean War of 1950. A 1953 armistice effectively ended the fighting; however, the two nations are officially still at war with each other, as a peace treaty was never signed. Both nations were accepted into the United Nations in 1991.

North Korea is a single-party state under a united front led by the Korean Workers' Party. The country's government styles itself as following the Juche ideology of self-reliance, developed by Kim Il-sung, the country's former leader. Juche became the official state ideology in 1972, when the country adopted a new constitution, though Kim Il-sung had been using the ideology to form policy since 1963. Though nominally a socialist republic, it is widely considered by the outside world to be a de facto authoritarian/totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship. The current leader is Kim Jong-il, the late president Kim Il-sung's son.

Geography

main: Geography of North Korea

North Korea occupies the northern portion of the Korean Peninsula, covering an area of . North Korea shares land borders with People's Republic of China and Russia to the north, and borders South Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. To its west are the Yellow Sea and Korea Bay, and to its east lies Japan across the Sea of Japan (East Sea of Korea). The highest point in North Korea is Paektu-san Mountain at . The longest river is the Amnok River which flows for .

North Korea's climate is relatively temperate, with precipitation heavier in summer during a short rainy season called changma, and winters that can be bitterly cold. On August 7, 2007, the most devastating floods in 40 years caused the North Korean Government to ask for international help. NGOs, such as the Red Cross, asked people to raise funds because they feared a humanitarian catastrophe.