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Introducing North Korea
Redefining the term rogue state through its isolationism, controversial nuclear weapons programme and missile testing, North Korea is probably the most mysterious country in the world today and one almost entirely untouched by tourism. Off the beaten path seems too slight a term for a nation that admits fewer than 2000 Westerners a year, and whose overwhelming attraction is its isolation and backwardness. The capital, Pyongyang, has a few sites worth visiting and Paekdusan is considered one of the most stunning sights in North Korea.
Here the Kim dynasty, which began life as a Soviet-sponsored communist government in the 1950s, has evolved into a hereditary dictatorship owing far more to Confucianism than Marxism. The founder of the state, Kim Il Sung, may have died in 1994, but he is still the president of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the name locals prefer for their country). His son, a man who has only ever uttered one sentence in public (it was ‘Long Live the Victorious Korean People’s Army’ at a rally in Pyongyang in the early 1990s), continues to rule like a medieval monarch, an unknown quantity with nuclear weapons and a huge army at his beck and call, giving sleepless nights to governments in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.
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Latest headlines for North Korea
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Carmakers suffer around the world
10 July 2009 7:36AM
Governments around the world have stepped in to rescue carmakers that have been hit by a slump in sales in recent months.
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World powers accept warming limit
9 July 2009 8:21PM
Developed and developing nations agree global temperatures should not rise more than 2C above 1900 levels, a G8 declaration says.
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North Koreans learn Southern ways
9 July 2009 4:16PM
The BBC's John Sudworth follows North Koreans as they learn how to adjust to life in capitalist South Korea.
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