BACKGROUND PAPER
ON
THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
1. The Democratic Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea, is a communist country run by dictator Kim Jung Un. North Korea and South Korea were created with a split across the 38th parallel after World War II. While the South sought out democracy and enhancing foreign relations, North Korea remains a communistic dictatorial country. The two domains that will be discussed will be the political and social relationships North Korea has with neighboring countries, and how striving to update its military technology is impacting the economic growth of the country. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party. With that anniversary, North Korea hosted
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“The party’s revolutionary armament means we are ready to fight any kind of war waged by the US imperialists.” This statement shows the mindset of North Korea relationship with the US. Recently there have been images supporting the theory of North Korea implementing another nuclear test in underground tunnels. Statements of reopening nuclear facilities and an armament increasing in “quality and quantity” also lead to support the theory that North Korea is proceeding with more military building.7 It is estimated to be greater than 1000 missiles of different capabilities in the stockpile of North Koreas armory. The most dangerous being the Taepodong-2 missile. Configured as a space rocket, it has successfully deployed an object into space in 2012 after several failed attempts. It can be configured into a missile and have a projected range of hitting Alaska and the coast of Australia. The Nodong missile was developed in the late 1980s. It is seen to be inaccurate, but could cause civilian casualties if fired on a large metro area. The Musudan Missile has never been publicly tested and has various range and payload capabilities due to the lack of information on it. The Taepodong-1 missile was the first multistage missile developed by North Korea and is also reportedly very inaccurate.8
Satellite Imagery also suggest North Korea is testing submarine ballistic missile systems. Imagery shows a massive structure has been built “Identical to the equipment needed to test stabilization and fire-control systems of a missile.” A statement from North Korea concerning a successful launch of underwater missiles supports the claim of underwater missile