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 shares borders with China and Russia to the north at the Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone. North Korea's border with South Korea is a disputed border as both countries claim the entirety of the Korean Peninsula. 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 legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city.
Kim Jong-il was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim Il-sung, the first Supreme Leader, until his own death in 2011, when he was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong-nam was the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. From roughly 1994 to 2001, he was considered the heir apparent to his father. He was thought to have fallen out of favour after embarrassing the regime in 2001 with a failed attempt to visit Tokyo Disneyland with a false passport, although Kim himself said his loss of favour had been due to advocating reform.
Kim Pyong-il is the younger paternal half-brother of the former leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il, and the only surviving son of former leader and president of North Korea Kim Il-sung. He worked as a diplomat and lived overseas between 1979 and 2019, serving in various diplomatic positions such as ambassador of North Korea to Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
Hwang Jang-yop was a North Korean politician who served as the Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly from 1972–1983 and was largely responsible for crafting Juche, the state ideology of North Korea. He defected to South Korea in 1997, the highest-ranking North Korean to have defected.
Songun is the "military-first" policy of North Korea, prioritizing the Korean People's Army in the affairs of state and allocation of resources. "Military-first" as a principle guides political and economic life in North Korea, with "military-first politics" dominating the political system; "a line of military-first economic construction" acting as an economic system; and "military-first ideology" serving as the guiding ideology.
Kim Jong-un is a North Korean politician who has been the supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's second supreme leader from 1994 to 2011, and Ko Yong-hui. He is a grandson of Kim Il-sung, who was the founder and first supreme leader of North Korea from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. Kim Jong-un is the first leader of North Korea to have been born in the country after its founding in 1948.
Cho Man-sik was a nationalist activist in Korea's independence movement. He became involved in the power struggle that enveloped North Korea in the months following the Japanese surrender after World War II. Originally, Cho was supported by the Soviet Union for the eventual rule of North Korea. However, due to his opposition to trusteeship, Cho lost Soviet support and was forced from power by the Soviet-backed and pro Soviet communists in the north. Placed under house arrest in January 1946, he later disappeared into the North Korean prison system, where confirmed reports of him end. He is generally believed to have been executed soon after the start of the Korean War, possibly in October 1950.
Jang Song-thaek was a leading figure in the government of North Korea. He was married to Kim Kyong-hui, the only daughter of North Korean Premier Kim Il-sung and his first wife Kim Jong-suk, and only sister of North Korean general secretary Kim Jong-il. He was therefore the uncle of current leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.
Seong Hye-rang is a North Korean defector and author.
The Communist movement in Korea emerged as a political movement in the early 20th century. Although the movement had a minor role in pre-war politics, the division between the communist North Korea and the anti-communist South Korea came to dominate Korean political life in the post-World War II era. North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, continues to be a Jucheist state under the rule of the Workers' Party of Korea. In South Korea, the National Security Law has been used to criminalize advocacy of communism and groups suspected of alignment with North Korea. Due to the end of economic aid from the Soviet Union after its dissolution in 1991, due to the impractical ideological application of Stalinist policies in North Korea over years of economic slowdown in the 1980s and receding during the 1990s, North Korea continues to nominally uphold Communism, but has replaced Marxism-Leninism with the Juche idea. References to Communism were removed in the North Korean 1992 and 1998 constitutional revisions to make way for the personality cult of Kim's family dictatorship and the North Korean market economy reform. The Workers' Party of Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong Un later reconfirmed commitment to the establishment of a communist society, but orthodox Marxism has since been largely tabled in favor of "Socialism in our style". Officially, the DPRK still retains a command economy with complete state control of industry and agriculture. North Korea maintains collectivized farms and state-funded education and healthcare.
O Jin-u was a North Korean general and politician. He served with Kim Il-sung's partisan unit and eventually rose through the ranks of the North Korean Army. He distinguished himself during the Korean War and was a trusted adviser of Kim Il-sung until his death, also being his chief guard in 1945. Thanks to his relationship with Kim Il-sung, O Jin-u was able to enjoy wealth and fame, this lasted even under Kim Jong-il. He was the Minister of Armed Forces from May 1976 until his death in February 1995. O was considered the third-most powerful person in North Korea, after Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il, therefore making him the most powerful person that possessed no blood relations to the Kim family. He is considered a hardliner and advocated North Korea's nuclear program.
YB, formerly known as Yoon Do-hyun Band (Korean: 윤도현밴드), is a South Korean rock band. Formed in 1996, the band consists of Yoon Do-hyun, Heo Jun, Kim Jin-won (drums), Park Tae-hee and Scott Hellowell (guitar). YB rose to major popularity and success during the 2002 World Cup, and once again in 2011 through appearing in the Korean TV show I Am a Singer. They have performed across the world and regularly headline major rock festivals in South Korea.
Kim Il-sung was a Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994. He was the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) from 1949 to 1994. Coming to power after the end of Japanese rule in 1945, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, triggering an intervention in defense of South Korea by the United Nations led by the United States. Following the military stalemate in the Korean War, a ceasefire was signed on 27 July 1953. He was the third longest-serving non-royal head of state/government in the 20th century, in office for more than 45 years.
Oon Yung is a North Korean diplomat in Europe. In the 1990s he served time at the North Korean embassy in France. He was responsible for recruiting South Koreans such as Jean-Baptiste Kim to Pyongyang.
Kim Il-sung died of a sudden heart attack on the early morning of 8 July 1994 at age 82. North Korea's government did not report the death for more than 34 hours after it occurred. An official mourning period was declared from 8–17 July, during which the national flag was flown at half mast throughout the country, and all forms of amusement and dancing were prohibited.
Park Sang-hak is a North Korean democracy activist and is the chairman of Fighters for a Free North Korea.
The Kim family, also known as the Kim dynasty or the Mount Paektu bloodline in the ideological discourse of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), is a three-generation lineage of North Korean leadership, descending from the country's founder and first leader, Kim Il-sung. The patriarch came to rule the north in 1948, after the end of Japanese rule split the region in 1945. He began the Korean War in 1950, in a failed attempt to reunify the Korean Peninsula. In the 1980s, Kim Il-sung developed a cult of personality closely tied to the North Korean state philosophy of Juche. Following his death in 1994, Kim Il-sung's role as supreme leader was passed on to his son Kim Jong-il, and then to his grandson Kim Jong-un. All three men have served as leaders of the WPK and have exercised absolute control over North Korea since the state's establishment in 1948.
Cho Ki-chon was a Russian-born North Korean poet. He is regarded as a national poet and "founding father of North Korean poetry" whose distinct Soviet-influenced style of lyrical epic poetry in the socialist realist genre became an important feature of North Korean literature. He was nicknamed "Korea's Mayakovsky" after the writer whose works had had an influence on him and which implied his breaking from the literature of the old society and his commitment to communist values. Since a remark made by Kim Jong-il on his 2001 visit to Russia, North Korean media has referred to Cho as the "Pushkin of Korea".
Kim Cheol-woong is a North Korean pianist who defected to South Korea.
