North Korea
Country in East Asia, bounded northeast by Russia, north and northwest
by China, east by the Sea of Japan, south by South Korea, and
west by the Yellow Sea.
Government
Under the 1972 constitution, which replaced the 1948 Soviet-type constitution,
the leading political figure is the president, who is head of
the armed forces and executive head of government. The president
is appointed for four-year terms by the 687-member supreme people's
assembly, which is directly elected by universal suffrage. The
assembly meets for brief sessions once or twice a year, its regular
legislative business being carried out by a smaller permanent
standing committee (presidium). The president works with and presides
over a powerful policy-making and supervisory central people's
committee (which is responsible to the assembly for its activities)
and an administrative and executive cabinet (administration council).
In practice, though, the control of the ruling party - the Korean
Workers' Party - and military support are of more importance than
the formalities of the constitution.
History
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was formed from the zone
north of the 38th parallel of latitude, occupied by Soviet troops
after Japan's surrender in 1945. The USSR installed in power an
` Executive Committee of the Korean PeopleŽ, staffed by Soviet-trained
Korean communists, before North Korea was declared a People's
Republic on 9 September 1948 under the leadership of the Workers'
Party of Korea (KWP), with Kim Il Sung as president. The remaining
Soviet forces withdrew in 1949.
After two years of skirmishes around the 38th parallel that
divided it from the non-communist Republic of Korea in the south,
the North Koreans launched a large-scale attack on south in June
1950, in an attempt to reunify the country. This began the three-year
Korean War (see also Korea: history 1637-1953 ), which, after
intervention by US-led United Nations forces (on the side of the
South) and by China (on the side of the North), ended in stalemate.
The 38th parallel was reestablished as the border between North
and South by the armistice agreement of July 1953, and a UN-patrolled
demilitarized buffer zone was created. North Korea was devastated
by the war, and lost 294,000 troops, but remains committed to
reunification.
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