North Korea Research Paper

July 1953, on the Korean peninsula lays the 38th parallel; stood there the beginning of two divided countries, North and South Korea. North Korea backed by the Soviet Union with a communistic glance at the world, while South Korea was leaning more towards democracy. These two countries divided at the 38th parallel also known as the demilitarized zone which acts as a border and cease fire agreement. Since the separation, North Korea has maintained their communist characteristics, keeping their country a secret inside and out. However, this essay will cover three main areas on North Koreas’ survivability as a country: politics, economics and the Korean People’s Air Force Air Defense.

The North Korean government consist of these branches:

The legislative branch consist of the Supreme People’s Assembly, which has the authority to adopt or amend the constitutional laws, and ordinances. (country studies) The judicial branch acts as both adjudicative and prosecuting bodies of the government. The Central Court is the highest court in the country, led by two associate chief judges also elected by the Supreme People’s Assembly. ( country studies) Solely based on the Kim family regime; everything that takes place is solely to embrace or bring honor to this family. From building statues in the nation’s capital to parading the birthday of Kim Il Sung. (country studies) The current supreme leader Kim Jong-Un of North Korea continues to exhibit a strong sense of censorship around the country. The government issues every household television and radio sets pre-tuned to a government network. Schools and universities will only use the intranet, which is a watered down version of the

The Korean People’s Army consists of 1.5 million people total being active soldiers and reserve forces. The KPA has been known to have a very offensive posture, as they march through the countries capital of Pyongyang. They display everything from cold weather gear all the way to intercontinental ballistic missiles. “No nation in the world develops missiles and shows the real thing during a parade, it’s just too dangerous.” (Markus Schiller) The KPA puts unmeasurable amounts of energy into advancing their offensive posture. On the other hand, the countries defensive posture has an inventory full of old equipment. The SA-7 GRAIL is a low altitude surface to air missile with infrared homing capabilities, shoulder fired with a high explosive warhead. (GlobalSecurity) The introduction of this weapon was in 1966, its creation was mainly to compete against the American HAWK missile. Except, this missile has no protection against IR decoys and jammers coming from enemy aircraft. To engage targets at low altitude, helicopters, airplanes and UAV. Another form of short range air defense is the SA-16, which is almost identically the same minus a few structural features that differentiate the two. Although, they may look the same, the SA-16 is equipped with a two color seeker. The seeker is highly sensitive and has the ability to home in on the aircrafts radiation. Which also minimizes going off