North Korea

North Korea is a country in East Asia. It sits on the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its full name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. About 26 million people live there. The capital city is Pyongyang. North Korea shares borders with China, Russia, and South Korea. The country is one of the most closed-off places in the world, and very few outsiders are allowed to visit.

For most of its history, Korea was a single kingdom with its own language and culture. That changed after World War II. In 1945, the winning Allied powers split the Korean Peninsula in two. The Soviet Union controlled the north, and the United States controlled the south. The north became a communist country in 1948 under a leader named Kim Il-sung.

In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. This started the Korean War, which lasted three years and killed millions of people. The fighting ended in 1953 with a ceasefire, but no peace treaty was ever signed. Technically, the two countries are still at war today. A strip of land between them, called the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ, is one of the most heavily guarded borders on Earth.

Since 1948, North Korea has been ruled by three generations of the same family. Kim Il-sung was followed by his son Kim Jong-il, and then by his grandson Kim Jong-un, who took power in 2011. The Kim family runs the government, the army, and the economy. People are taught from childhood to treat the leaders almost like gods. Giant statues of them stand in many cities.

Life inside North Korea is very different from life in most countries. The government controls almost everything, including what people read, watch, and say. There is no free internet. Citizens cannot travel freely to other countries. Food shortages have been a serious problem for decades, and a famine in the 1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people.

North Korea has also built nuclear weapons. World leaders have tried for years to get the country to give them up. So far, the talks have not worked. Because of its weapons and its harsh rule, many countries have placed trade bans on North Korea.

Just across the border in South Korea, families speak the same language and share the same ancient history. Millions of Koreans have relatives on the other side they have never met. Reuniting the two Koreas is a dream many people still hold.