History of North Korea
Following World War II, Korea was split into a northern, Soviet dominated Communist half and a southern, US-dominated capitalist half.The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was formed on September 9, 1948 amidst complex politics that followed the defeat of Japan in World War II (Japan ruled the Korean peninsula from 1910-1945). The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was based on the democratic "people's committees" of the sovereign, unified "Korean People's Republic" which had popular support but was never recognized by the United States in the south where they were outlawed. In the north, the Soviet Red Army encouraged the committees but gradually steered them so they fell under control of the Korean Communist Party (which later became the Korean Workers Party. In February 1946, the Soviet Civil Authority through which the Red Army had ruled the country since the previous August, ceded authority to the North Korean Provisional People's Commitee headed by Kim Il-sung and was superseded in 1948 by the legislative bodies of the new DPRK.
With the backing of the Soviet Union, Kim Il-Sung started on a series of popular social and economic reforms which included land redistribution and nationalizing Japanese assets. At their founding, both the DPRK based in the north and the southern Republic of Korea claimed jurisdiction over the entire Korean peninsula putting the two regimes on a path towards conflict.
The Korean War, which followed soon after the formation of the country, resulted from political differences that couldn't be reconciled between the Communist north and the American-controlled south.
The north's army was better-trained and better-experienced, and it advanced quickly into the south capturing Seoul and taking almost the entire Korean peninsula. American reenforcements entered the war and pushed the North Korean forces to the Yalu River bordering the People's Republic of China. This resulted in China sending millions of troops into Korea pushing the Americans and South Koreans back to the 38th parallel where a general stalemate resulted, along the original line of division that existed before the war. A formal division of the peninsula was established in 1948 forming a de-facto front. The conflict lasted from 1950 to 1953 and inflicted heavy human losses in North Korea and resulting in closer ties between North Korea and Communist China.
After the war, support from the Soviet Union waned due to the presence of Chinese troops in North Korea after the war and the growing Sino-Soviet split. North Korea used the split to play China and the USSR off against each other for support allowing the regime to persue a more independent policy. Relations between North Korea and the USSR worsened after Khrushchev denounced Stalin at Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU and ushered in a policy of destalinisation and against the cult of personality, initiatives which Kim Il-sung saw as a threat to his authority within the DPRK and resisted. However, while the North Korean leadership was impressed by Chinese campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward it saw Maoist initiatives such as the Hundred Flowers Campaign and the Cultural Revolution as destabalising and dangerous and not worth emulating.
As an alternative, Kim Il Sung's "Juche" (or "self-reliance") idea began to develop as a central political idea in the late 1950s and ultimately displaced Marxism-Leninism as the country's official ideology. Kim consolidated his position within the party by purging pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese elements leaving his loyalists in control by 1960 at which point the personality cult around Kim intensified and he began to be known by appelations such as Great Leader.
Some degree of industrial and economic gains resulted from industralisation strategies persued throughout the 1960s and early 1970s and, according to some economists, the North Korean economy grew at a faster rate than that of its southern counterpart from the 1950s into the 1970s. However, by the mid-1970s, more expensive oil along with a growing technology gap with the rest of the world undermined the reforms. Instead of turning to capitalist reform like the People's Republic of China, Kim Il Sung opted for an ideological purity of his economic policy under a socialist system. Still, North Korea would continue to be forced to choke its economy in the name of self-defense from the very real threat of the United States.
North Korea defaulted on almost all of its loans in 1980 and by the late 1980s industrial output was declining by greater than 4% per year. Nevertheless, the DPRK refused to abandon its socialist system.
Kim Il-sung died in 1994, and following a power struggle that left the country without a clear leader from 1994-1997, his son, Kim Jong Il, was elected president in October 1997.
Following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, the George W. Bush Administration, in violation of the 1994 North Korea-U.S. Agreed Framework, named North Korea as part of a so-called "Axis of Evil" and a potential target of its "pre-emptive strike" policy. Bush says that he labeled North Korea a part of the so-called 'Axis of Evil' due to its arm sales to countries, such as Iraq, which he alleged was known to fund and train terrorists.
In late 2002, North Korean officials expelled United Nations weapons inspectors and admitted running a clandestine nuclear energy program in violation of international agreements, which they charged had already been rendered void by the United States' failure to live up to either of its key requirements. They also indicated that they were going to continue this program unless the United States agreed to a non-invasion pact. The United States alleges that North Korea had a nuclear weapons program. (See: North Korea nuclear weapons program)
Currently (2004) the population is suffering greatly, as the supply of heating and electricity outside the capital is practically non-existing, and food supplies scarce.
See also the article on the Korean Workers' Party for additional historical background