October 26, 2017

On Sept. 19, 2017, in his first address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York City, United States President Donald Trump issued a stunning pronouncement regarding North Korea. If the United States was forced to defend itself or its allies against North Korean aggression, Trump told world leaders, “we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” Trump’s belligerent rhetoric—widely criticized by other world leaders—was the latest volley in a war of words between the two countries in which Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, had earlier threatened to destroy the U.S. Pacific Islands territory of Guam. North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In a show of defiance on Independence Day in the United States, North Korea launches a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on July 4, 2017. Credit: © STR/AFP/Getty Images

Tensions between North Korea and the United States have risen steadily since Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. During the year, North Korea escalated its fledgling nuclear weapons program, testing ballistic missiles and conducting earth-shaking nuclear tests in the face of worldwide disapproval. Prior to Trump, U.S. presidents had taken a more diplomatic approach toward North Korean threats, noting that while the United States was militarily capable of overpowering the North, the human cost of such destruction would be too high. Caught in the war of words was South Korea, a traditional U.S. ally that was itself trying to negotiate a long-simmering feud with its northern neighbor. South Korea’s official name is the Republic of Korea.

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A line roughly along the 38th parallel of north latitude separates North and South Korea. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

In 1948, the Korean peninsula was divided into the U.S.-backed democratic nation of South Korea and the Communist country of North Korea, which was supported by China and the Soviet Union. Both Korean governments claimed to represent all Korea. From 1950 to 1953, they fought for control of the peninsula in a bloody conflict known as the Korean War. Neither side won complete victory, and an armistice ended the fighting in July 1953. The United States, which fought with South Korea in the conflict, has stationed troops in the country ever since, and tensions between the Koreas have remained high. To this day, a demilitarized zone runs along the the 38th parallel of north latitude, keeping the bitter enemy countries apart.

Since the war, North Korea’s dynasty of dictators—Kim Il-sung, followed by Kim Jong-il, and his son Kim Jong-un—have kept the country isolated and at odds with much of the rest of the world. A nuclear weapons program started under Kim Jong-il was halted by an international agreement in 1994, but North Korea resumed the program in 2003. Kim Jong-un, who gained power in 2011, continued to develop North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, further increasing the nation’s problematic relations with the rest of the world.

North Korea intensified its nuclear weapons program in 2017. In February, the country began a series of missile tests. Experts believed the missiles were designed to deliver a nuclear warhead, and some appeared to be powerful enough to reach the west coast of the United States. In March, the United States began deploying a missile defense system in South Korea to defend the South and nearby allies from Northern missile strikes. In early August, North Korea announced it was developing a plan to launch missiles at Guam, home to large U.S. Air Force and Navy bases. President Trump threatened to retaliate with “fire and fury” if North Korea attacked.

On August 29, North Korea fired a missile over Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. (Japan, a close U.S. ally, also hosts U.S. military bases.) The missile firing drew strong international criticism—something that only added fuel to North Korea’s fire. In early September, the “rogue nation” (a nation that ignores international law) further worried the world by detonating a hydrogen bomb, threatening to reduce the U.S. mainland to “ashes and darkness,” and firing another missile over Hokkaido.

In the days following Trump’s September 19 address to the UN General Assembly, he and Kim exchanged insults, threatening increased military action and accusing each other of being mentally deranged. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho accused Trump of declaring war on his country, saying North Korea had the right to shoot down U.S. warplanes.

China, a traditional North Korean ally, has distanced itself from its troublesome neighbor. Yet China has much to lose in a potential conflict, and the nation remains a vitally interested spectator. China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, advised caution in late September: “We hope the U.S. and North Korean politicians have sufficient political judgment to realize that resorting to military force will never be a viable way to resolve the peninsula issue.”

March 10, 2014

North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, was elected yesterday to the nation’s highest legislative body, the Supreme People’s Assembly. He received 100 percent of the votes in his district, where 100 percent of registered voters turned out for the polling. Uniformed soldiers danced together joyfully following the balloting.

The Assembly consists of 687 deputies. Yesterday’s election was the first since Kim inherited power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. The state-run Korean Central News Agency described Kim Jong-un’s election as “an expression of all the service personnel and people’s absolute support and profound trust in supreme leader Kim Jong-un as they single-mindedly remain loyal to him.”

Political experts on the situation in North Korea suggested that yesterday’s elections were intended to further consolidate Kim Jong-un’s power; all of the candidates were hand-picked by him; thus, older deputies were replaced with younger officials, whose loyalty to Kim is absolute.

Since assuming power, Kim has engineered a number of political purges to eliminate potential challenges to his rule. In the most dramatic of these, Kim’s uncle–Jang Song-thaek, once the second-most powerful man in the country–was charged with corruption, found guilty, and summarily executed. Experts on North Korea believe that the older deputies rooted out in yesterday’s election included people whom Kim feared may have harbored lingering loyalties to Jang.

Kim Jong-un holds power as ruthlessly as his father and grandfather. (© EPA/KCNA/Alamy Images)

Kim holds many titles, including supreme commander of the armed forces. His grandfather–Kim Il-sung, who ruled North Korea from 1948 until his death in 1994–established an absolute dictatorship, exercising total control over all aspects of society. North Korea remains a totalitarian state, where much of the population lives in profound isolation and dire poverty. A series of natural disasters coupled with an indifferent government resulted in the starvation of an estimated 1 million North Koreans from 1995 through 2000.

Adequate nutrition remains a problem. Since the widespread famine of the 1990′s, mismanagement, bad weather, and inadequate investment in agriculture have hampered recovery efforts. European Union nutrition experts have reported that state-issued food rations, on which two-thirds of North Korea’s population depend, comprise only one-fifth of standard daily nutritional requirements.

Additional World Book articles:

• North Korea 1995 (a Back in Time article)
• North Korea 1996 (a Back in Time article)
• North Korea 1997 (a Back in Time article)
• North Korea 1998 (a Back in Time article)
• North Korea 2000 (a Back in Time article)
• North Korea 2011 (a Back in Time article)

February 12, 2013

North Korea has confirmed that it has conducted a nuclear weapons test, its third. According to the North Korean state news agency, the North used a “miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously” and the test “did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment.”

The director of U.S. National Intelligence Agency, James R. Clapper, Jr., issued a statement that North Korea was, in fact, producing nuclear devices with substantial explosive power: “The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons.” North Korea’s first test, in 2006, had a yield of less than one kiloton. By comparison, the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, ending World War II in 1945, had an explosive yield of 15 kilotons.

An atomic blast fills the sky over Nagasaki. The United States dropped the first atomic bombs used in warfare on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, during World War II. (© Getty Images)

Today’s test is the first under North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, and was, according to international affairs experts, conducted in open defiance of China. The Chinese government has warned Kim that setting off nuclear weapons risks confrontation with South Korea, Japan, and the West. (North and South Korea never agreed to a peace treaty after the Korean Conflict ended in 1953 and, officially, remain at war.) In response to the test, China issued a statement expressing its “staunch opposition” but calling for “all parties concerned to respond calmly.” In New York City, members of the United Nations Security Council were called into an emergency meeting.

Kim Jong-un became the leader of North Korea in 2011. (© EPA/KCNA/Alamy Images)

Additional World Book articles:

• Kim Jong-il
• North Korea 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• North Korea 2009 (a Back in Time article)

• North Korea 2011 (a Back in Time article)

November 28, 2012

The online newspaper of China’s Communist Party ran a 55-page photographic feature hailing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as the sexiest man alive, failing to realize that the title had been “announced” by the satirical American news website The Onion. The photographs, posted to the website of China’s People’s Daily yesterday, showed Kim greeting troops, holding children, and riding on horseback. They were accompanied by ironic quotes from the Onion article praising Kim’s “round face, boyish charm, and strong, sturdy frame….” North Korea and China are close allies.

Founded in 1988, The Onion has grown popular for its sharp mockery both of current events and of journalism itself. Its deadpan imitation of newspaper style can be surprisingly convincing. This was not the first time that one of its spoofs had been picked up as fact by international media. In September 2012, an Iranian news agency had to apologize after picking up a humorous Onion article alleging that rural Americans preferred Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to U.S. President Barack Obama.

In declaring Kim Jong-un the sexiest man alive for 2012, The Onion was, in part, satirizing the cult of celebrity that surrounds North Korea’s Communist dictatorship. Past winners, according to the article, include confessed fraudster Bernie Madoff and the conservative activist Koch brothers.

April 13, 2012

North Korea’s much-watched launch of a long-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon failed this morning. The rocket broke up and crashed into the Sea of Japan shortly after being launched from northwest North Korea. According to the government in Pyongyang, the capital, the aim of the launch had been to put a satellite into orbit to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, founder of North Korea and grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong-un.

A statue in Pyongyang commemorates Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea. (Courtesy of Dermot Tatlow, Panos Pictures)

International affairs experts described the failure as a major loss of face for Kim and his regime. Kim became leader of North Korea at the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.

Additional World Book articles:

• North Korea 2011 (Back in Time article)
• Korea 1994 (Back in Time article)

Dec. 28, 2011

The two-day funeral of the late dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-il, began with a three-hour procession in Pyongyang, the capital. Tens of thousands of North Korean soldiers bowed their heads as a giant portrait of Kim was carried through the streets. Kim Jong-il’s successor and third son, Kim Jong-un, walked beside the flower-draped hearse, one hand on the vehicle and the other raised in salute. Kim Jong-un was followed by his uncle, Chang Song-taek, a senior figure in the North Korea’s leadership who is married to Kim Jong-il’s sister, Kim Kyung-hee, a general in her own right. As the hearse passed, crowds of mourners wailed and threw themselves against soldiers who struggled to keep them from pushing into the street.

Kim Jong-il (left) greets then-President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea in 2000. © AP/Wide World

Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack on December 17. The body laid in state since his death was announced on December 19. A national memorial service was scheduled to take place at noon on December 29.

Kim Jong-il succeeded his father, Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994. Kim Il-sung had, with the support of the Soviet Union, established North Korea as a Communist state in 1948, and he was its first leader.

Although the North Korean public was told the Kim Jong-il died of “physical and mental overwork,” he was known to be extremely fond of French brandy, gourmet food, and movies. He was said to have had a collection of 20,000 films. Under Kim Jong-il’s rule, an estimated 1 million North Koreans starved to death in the 1990′s because of famine. During this period, Kim achieved his greatest ambition, arming the nation with nuclear weapons. North Korea has long maintained one of the world’s largest standing armies–1 million troops–which were fed and maintained at the expense of the rest of the population. North Korea’s chronic food shortages continued in 2011.

Additional World Book articles

Dec. 19, 2011

People openly wept on the streets of Pyongyang, capital of North Korea, upon hearing the news that their “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong-il, had died. The official news agency KCNA announced that Kim suffered a heart attack and died on December 17 at age 69. A tearful state media announcer confirmed that one of Kim’s sons, Kim Jong-un, is the “great successor” behind whom North Koreans should unite.

Kim Jong-il (left) greets then-President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea in 2000. © AP/Wide World

Fearing that Kim’s death could destabilize North Korea, the government of South Korea put its armed forces on high alert and declared that the country was on a crisis footing. In Tokyo, the Japanese government convened a special security meeting. According South Korea, the North test-fired a short-range guided missile prior to the announcement of Kim’s death. North Korea and South Korea remain technically at war 58 years after the Korean War ended on July 27, 1953. A permanent peace treaty between South Korea and North Korea has never been signed, and the United States has nearly 30,000 troops stationed in South Korea to discourage hostilities between the North and South.

Kim Jong-il succeeded his father, Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994. Kim Il-sung had, with the support of the Soviet Union, established North Korea as a Communist state in 1948, and he was its first leader.

Although the North Korean public was told the Kim Jong-il died of “physical and mental overwork,” he was known to be extremely fond of French brandy, gourmet food, and movies. He was said to have had a collection of 20,000 films. Under Kim Jong-il’s rule, an estimated 1 million North Koreans starved to death in the 1990′s because of famine. During this period, Kim achieved his greatest ambition, arming the nation with nuclear weapons. North Korea has long maintained one of the world’s largest standing armies–1 million troops–which were fed and maintained at the expense of the rest of the population. In 2011, North Korea continued to have chronic food shortages.

Additional World Book articles