Contents
| |||||
| Centuries: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decades: | |||||
| See also: | Other events of 2001 Years in North Korea Timeline of Korean history 2001 in South Korea | ||||
Events from the year 2001 in North Korea.
| |||||
| Centuries: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decades: | |||||
| See also: | Other events of 2001 Years in North Korea Timeline of Korean history 2001 in South Korea | ||||
Events from the year 2001 in North Korea.
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically divided at or near the 38th parallel; in 1948, two states declared independence, both claiming sovereignty over the entire region: North Korea in its northern half and South Korea in the south, which fought the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The region is bordered by China to the north and Russia to the northeast, across the Amnok (Yalu) and Duman (Tumen) rivers, and is separated from Japan to the southeast by the Korea Strait.
Korean is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the national language of both North Korea and South Korea.
The Korean War was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations Command (UNC) led by the United States. Fighting ended in 1953 with an armistice, with no treaty signed.
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. North Korea, like its southern counterpart, claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city.
The Korean People's Army encompasses the combined military forces of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). The KPA consists of five branches: the Ground Force, the Naval Force, the Air Force, Strategic Force, and the Special Operation Force. It is commanded by the WPK Central Military Commission, which is chaired by the WPK general secretary, and the president of the State Affairs; both posts are currently headed by Kim Jong Un.
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone; though it also claims the land border with China and Russia. The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. South Korea claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. It has a population of 51.96 million, of which half live in the Seoul Capital Area, the ninth most populous metropolitan area in the world. Other major cities include Busan, Daegu, and Incheon.
Pyongyang is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about 109 km (68 mi) upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,288. Pyongyang is a directly administered city with a status equal to that of the North Korean provinces.
Korean reunification is the hypothetical unification of North Korea and South Korea into a singular Korean sovereign state. The process towards reunification of the peninsula while still maintaining two opposing regimes was started by the June 15th North–South Joint Declaration in June 2000, was reaffirmed by the October 4th Declaration in October 2007 and the Panmunjom Declaration in April 2018, and the joint statement of United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Singapore Summit in June 2018. In the Panmunjom Declaration, the two countries agreed to work to officially end the Korean conflict in the future.
North Korea has a military nuclear weapons program and, as of 2024, is estimated to have an arsenal of approximately 50 nuclear weapons and sufficient production of fissile material for six to seven nuclear weapons per year. North Korea has also stockpiled a significant quantity of chemical and biological weapons. In 2003, North Korea withdrew from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Since 2006, the country has conducted six nuclear tests at increasing levels of expertise, prompting the imposition of sanctions.
Kim Jong Il was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea. He led North Korea from the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 until his death in 2011, when he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un. Afterwards, Kim Jong Il was declared Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
Juche, officially the Juche idea, is the state ideology of North Korea and the official ideology of the Workers' Party of Korea. North Korean sources attribute its conceptualization to Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and first leader. Juche was originally regarded as a variant of Marxism–Leninism until Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Sung's son and successor, declared it a distinct ideology in the 1970s. Kim Jong Il further developed Juche in the 1980s and 1990s by making ideological breaks from Marxism–Leninism and increasing the importance of his father's ideas.
The division of Koreade facto began on 2 September 1945, when Japan signed the surrender document, thus ending the Pacific Theater of World War II. It was officially divided with the establishment of the two Koreas in 1948. During World War II, the Allied leaders had already been considering the question of Korea's future following Japan's eventual surrender in the war. The leaders reached an understanding that Korea would be liberated from Japan but would be placed under an international trusteeship until the Koreans would be deemed ready for self-rule. In the last days of the war, the United States proposed dividing the Korean peninsula into two occupation zones with the 38th parallel as the dividing line. The Soviets accepted their proposal and agreed to divide Korea.
The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a heavily militarized strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in half. It was established to serve as a buffer zone between the sovereign states of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea under the provisions of the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953, an agreement between North Korea, China, and the United Nations Command.
The Ryugyong Hotel, or Yu-Kyung Hotel, is a 1,080 ft tall unfinished pyramid-shaped skyscraper in Pyongyang, North Korea. Its name is also one of the historical names for Pyongyang. The building has been planned as a mixed-use development, which would include a hotel.
The North Korea national football team represents North Korea in men's international football and it is controlled by the DPR Korea Football Association, the governing body for Football in North Korea. The team represents both FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Kim Jong Un is a North Korean politician who has been supreme leader of North Korea since December 2011 and the general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim Jong Il, who was the second supreme leader of North Korea, and a grandson of Kim Il Sung, the founder and first supreme leader of the country.
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), is the sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is the oldest active party in Korea. It also controls the Korean People's Army, North Korea's armed forces. The WPK is the largest party represented in the Supreme People's Assembly and coexists with two other legal parties that are completely subservient to the WPK and must accept the WPK's "leading role" as a condition of their existence. The WPK is banned in the Republic of Korea under the National Security Act and is sanctioned by the United Nations, the European Union, Australia, and the United States.
Kim Il Sung was a North Korean politician, revolutionary, and military leader. He founded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, which he led as Supreme Leader from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Afterwards, he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il and was declared Eternal President.
The supreme leader of North Korea is the de facto hereditary leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea, the state and the Korean People's Army. Each individual North Korean leader have assumed different offices and positions, and different titles were used in North Korean propaganda that could be translated from Korean as "Great Leader", "Dear Leader", or "Supreme Leader".
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Hangeul in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern writing system for the Korean language. The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs used to pronounce them. They are systematically modified to indicate phonetic features. The vowel letters are systematically modified for related sounds, making Hangul a featural writing system. It has been described as a syllabic alphabet as it combines the features of alphabetic and syllabic writing systems.
