| North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is an East Asian country occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its government defines itself as a Communist-led democratic multi-party[3] state of the Juche political ideology, although in practice, it is believed to function as a dictatorship. North Korea is often referred to by global media sources as a Stalinist, isolationist, and authoritarian country; it uses repressive central planning to implement its economic and social policies. Its ideological stance on issues such as the mass line, the role of intellectuals, and the source of revolutionary fervor mark North Korea's government as different from the Leninist Soviet Union or Maoist China.
North Korea has been characterized by a professor at the American Strategic Studies Institute[2] as: "Highly repressive, heavily militarized, strongly resistant to reform, and ruled by a dynastic dictatorship that adheres to a hybrid ideology, North Korea might be 'the strangest political system in existence.' While distinctive, North Korea is an orthodox communist party-state best classified as an eroding totalitarian regime."[3]
Its northern border is predominantly shared with the People's Republic of China. Russia shares an 18.3 kilometre (11.4 mi) border along the Tumen River in the far northeast corner of the country. To the south, it is bordered by South Korea, with which it formed a single territorial unit known as Korea until 1945.
|
Anthem
in flash 
MP3
of National anthem size: 1,160 KB
