North Korea

Overview: North Korean culture is heavily influenced by China and it shares many customs and styles with South Korea, who it is still technically at war. North Korea has heavily rejected many of the forced cultural assimilation bestowed upon it by Japan during the Japanese occupation before and during World War II. Nevertheless North Korea has developed a distinct culture and identity that sets itself apart from even South Korea. Music and performing arts are heavily state controlled and even its cuisines has diverged from those of its southern neighbor.

History: Korea was formed in 1945 after the defeat of Japan and Korea was divided at the 38th parallel due to an United Nations agreement to be administered by the Soviet Union in the north and the United States in the south. North Korea was established as the Democratic People's Republi in 1948 although the economy and culture are both heavily controlled the national central government.

Language: North Koreans speak the same language of Korean as the those of South Koreans. There are significant colloquial differences that have emerged since the division of the country in 1945. North Koreans speak with a heavier tone and twists their tongue to enuniciate ending syllables more than their southern cousins. The Korean language is heavily influenced by Chinese and the written language is derived from Chinese characters with unique alterations. Because of its isolated state, North Koreans have adopted very little foreign words into its lexicon as compared with South Koreans.

Geography:
North Korea consists mostly of low mountains, hills, and high pleateaus which together make up 80% of the land. There are extensive forests in the northern region. The tallest moutain, Paektu-san Mountain is only 9,003 feet tall. The longest river is the Amnok River. North Korea occupies the northern half of the Korean peninsula with China and Russia bordering the north and South Korea bordering the South. To the west is Korea Bay and the Yellow Sea with China further west and to the east is the Sea of Japan with Japan due east.

Art and Crafts:
North Korean crafts have focused on traditional wood carvings, paper folding known as orgami, stitched long dresses similar to komonos, and potteries. Due to its government controlled regulation, there is very little performing arts in North Korea with a non-existent private sector. The country has less than 100 art galleries, all are nationalized, and thus do not have much foreigh works.

Cuisine:
There are a variety of korean foods with rice, noodles, and meats being the staple. A traditional Korean meal starts with a great number of small side dishes ranging from cold vegetables to spicy bean curd, fried fish and cold glass noodles. Soups are served as appetizers and towards the end of the meal and they tend to be spicy in nature, usually with tofu and some rice. The most popular main course is the korean barbeque meats consisting of marinated short ribs, steaks, pork belly, beef brisket, and chicken.

Demographics: There are approximately 24 million people in North Korea and is one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogenous populations in the world. North Koreans make up approximately 95% of the population with the remainder as Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, South Korea, and Europeans. The life expectancy is only 63.8 years which equivalent to Pakistan, Burma and Russia. Infant mortality stood high level of 51 out of 100,000 which is 2.5 times higher than China, and 12 times that of South Korea.

Sports: The sporting sector is highly centralized and controlled by the state. There are no commercial private teams for any major sport. The North Koreans are known for their winter sports and dominates in the speed skating short track.

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