North Korea Research Paper

North Korea: Past and Present

Since its founding, North Korea has been ruled by the Kim family. Founder Kim Il-sung established a state-run socialist government that may be considered to be influenced by Stalin. After being elected as Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Kim Il-sung formed the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in Pyongyang he claimed jurisdiction over all of Korea. North Korea’s regime invested an incredible amount of time and resources creating the Songbun system; a form of political apartheid that ascribes you with a level of perceived political loyalty. After World War II US forces left the Korean peninsula in 1949 which left the south vulnerable to an attack especially with a weaken government and inexperience

Even though a Peace treaty was never signed by both sides, the two are still separated by the 38th Parallel or De-Militarized Zone. As Supreme leader Kim Il-sung preached the idea of self-reliance or juche. The struggle for a complete victory of socialism as the three revolutions of ideology, technology and culture gathered steam under the slogan of modeling the whole society on the Juche idea. Before his death in 1994 Kim Il-sung designated his eldest son Kim Jong-il as his successor. Later in the years Kim distanced North Korea from the People’s Republic of China and Russia its traditional allied. A “Military-First” policy was establish under Kim Jong-il, devoting the majority of the country’s resources to the armed forces. With those policies combined with a cycle of devastating droughts followed by catastrophic floods, caused widespread famine throughout the 1990s. His government ran a series of “re-education” camps with this Kim Jong-il faced international pressure over human right abuses. Under these “re-education” camps they held has many as 50,000 citizens of all ages. These were considered political crimes for failure to

North Korea’s 13,000 artillery guns and long range batteries can strike into heavily populated areas of Seoul, South Korea’s capital which roughly sits 30 miles from the border. With these artillery guns at the border North Korea has the best advantage where they can inflict the most damage to Seoul with consistent heavy bombardment. With 70 percent of the North’s artillery batteries along the border it makes them vulnerable to be neutralized in matter of days. With a 200,000 man Special Forces, North Korea can cause major infrastructure in early stages of war. Pyongyang used these elite group before with a failed assignation attempt in 1968 on the South Korean President. During this assignation attempt 31 commandos stormed the Blue House and tried killing then President Park Chung-hee. That same year 120 commandos sneaked into eastern South Korea, during this infiltration they killed 20 civilians, soldiers, and police officers. With 70 submarines against the south’s 10 both sides have fought in numerous battles along the disputed western maritime border. They attack South Korean ships by element of surprise due to their aging equipment, the South however has more naval firepower and better technology. North Korea also have their elite commandos on smaller submarines and by inserting them along South