North Korea Crossword Puzzle for Kids

North Korea, officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is a country in the northern part of the Korean peninsula in East Asia. North Korea is next to China, Russia, and South Korea. The capital city of North Korea is Pyongyang, which is also the largest city in the country.

The country was founded in 1948 after it had been freed from Japanese occupation, and a socialist state backed by the Soviet Union was established. The Republic of Korea is the southern half of the Korean Peninsula and was occupied by the United States, which set up a right-wing authoritarian dictatorship in the south. At first, there was a war between the north and south which is called the Korean War, but while the fighting stopped in 1953, the war never officially ended. North Korea had ties with China and Russia but never was formally allied with either and became more isolated over time. Soon afterwards, the North's main trading partners the Soviet Union, collapsed. This left North Korea stranded and isolated. Throughout the 1990s, North Korea suffered from famines and natural disasters. As South Korea got richer, North Korea got poorer and life became worse there. Afterwards, things stabilized but continued to lag behind the South. Worldwide economic sanctions and embargoes are thought to have significantly impacted the quality of life in North Korea.

North Korea is described as a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship by western media, while North Korea describes itself as a democratic worker's state. The country's leader Kim Il-sung said that the government was following his own ideology of "Juche", which means "self-reliance". Later on, the country's leaders began to remove "communism" from North Korean laws and philosophy, although Juche can be described as a variant of communism. After Kim Il-sung died during the disasters of the 1990s, his son Kim Jong-il took his place and was promoted by the government as the leader who led North Korea out of the disasters. North Korea was the only communist country in history where leadership was directly given to the former leader's son after his death. This is called hereditary rule. Kim Jong-il enacted a new policy of "Songun", or "military-first", which turned the country into a military state. When he died in 2011, his youngest son Kim Jong-un took his place and continues to rule the country today.

History

Historians believe that the Korean people have lived in the area for thousands of years. Before 1910, Korea was one country. It had a king and people were mostly farmers. The country was peaceful. In 1910, that changed. Japan and Russia went to war in 1904-1905. Since Japan and Russia were both very close to Korea, Japan took Korea for themselves as part of Japan. Japan then had control.

Between 1910 and the end of World War II in 1945, Korea was considered a part of Japan due to Japan's colonization of Korea. In 1945, the USSR declared war on Japan and the United States bombed it (Nagasaki and Hiroshima); severely weakening its empire and forcing Japan to surrender. Japan's weak status allowed the Soviets to enter Korea fairly, freely and occupy the northern half whilst the United States took the southern half. The line that split North Korea and South Korea is called the 38th parallel. Each created governments supporting their own ideologies, Marxist–Leninist Single Party State (North) and Democratic Capitalist State (South).

In 1950, North Korea sent soldiers to South Korea. North Korea wanted to bring together North and South Korea to form a single Korean country, and Korean families that had been split by the division of North and South to be together again. The North Korean leaders wanted South Korea to be communist, like North Korea and the Soviet Union were.

The United Nations sent soldiers to Korea. These soldiers came from many countries. These countries did not like Communism (to learn more, see the article about the Cold War). If South Korea became Communist, then maybe other countries would too, which is called the Domino theory. General Douglas MacArthur led the soldiers, till his removal following a disagreement over policy against the North Koreans.

North Korea had taken over much of South Korea by force. With the help of the other countries, South Korea took back their land, and even much of North Korea, up to the Yalu River, which forms the border between North Korea and China. China, which was also communist, helped the North Koreans to get the land back that the South Korean soldiers had taken.

Politics and Government

People often think that North Korea is a communist country. It is actually a socialist-military dictatorship. In its most recent constitutional change, the word 'communism' was removed. Large pictures of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin were removed from Kim Il-Sung square in 2012. The government has a similar structure to the former Soviet Union (USSR), once a close ally, but it is very different from the USSR. Leaders of the USSR were elected by a group of government officials. In North Korea, the new leader is the current leader's male heir. For this reason, North Korea is often referred to as a hereditary dictatorship.

North Korea's official state ideology is Juche. That is a form of socialism developed by the country's founder, Kim Il-Sung. Juche means self-reliance. It teaches that to achieve true socialism and become self-sufficient, the state must become fully isolated from the rest of society.

The first head of state and Chairman of the Workers Party of North Korea was Kim Tu-bong.

In the late 1950s, the second head of state and party leader was Kim Il-Sung.

In July 1994, Kim died. His son, Kim Jŏng-Il, took over. He became the third supreme leader and party general secretary.

Economy

North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world. This is due to the government not wanting to allow North Koreans to earn their own money outside of their government-given jobs, to allow people to work the jobs they want, and to trade with other countries.

Although Pyongyang (which is the one of the few areas foreign travelers are allowed to visit) makes the country look like it is richer and more prosperous than it truly is, life looks extremely different throughout the rest of the country. Only the highest-ranking North Koreans are allowed to live in Pyongyang, and they must have permission from the government to do so. Unlike the rest of the country, people often own cars and bicycles, there is a subway system, and power exists throughout the city. Meanwhile, very few people in the countryside own a car, or even a bicycle, and animal-drawn carts are very common. Electricity in rural areas is rare, if it even exists at all. Proof(?) of this is that when seen from space, there are almost no lights that can be seen outside of Pyongyang. Even in Pyongyang, power cuts are common.

As said earlier, starvation is very common way to die throughout the country. The soil in most of the country is not good enough to grow enough crops to feed people without any kind of fertilizer. As a result, people often steal human poop to fertilize the soil. People also go out into nature to look for anything to eat such as grass, bark, frogs, worms, etc.

Since the government does not provide the average North Korean person enough resources to survive, most North Koreans get what they need from the black market. Even though buying and selling on the black market is illegal, people are able to avoid punishment by bribing officials. They might give things such as money, gifts, or sexual favors. Most people buying and selling at the black market are women. This is because all adult men are required by law to go to work during workhours, even when their workplace cannot or will not pay them for their work.

Since electricity is rare throughout North Korea, tasks such as cooking and washing clothes take much longer and are more tiring. People often wash clothes in a river or creek and must start fires before they can cook.

Culture and Religion

Historically, both South Korea and North Korea have had the same set of values. In 1945, the peninsula was divided. Since then, the government of both North and South Korea were different. This has led to different developments in both North and South Korea.

Human Rights Watch says that free religious activities do not exist in North Korea. The culture in Korea has been influenced by that of China. Despite this, Korea has developed a cultural identity that is different from that of Mainland China.

Literature and arts in North Korea are state-controlled. Specialized committees of the KWP are responsible for this. Film is also a significant artistic medium in North Korea and Kim Jong Il's manifesto The Cinema and Directing (1987) is the basis for the nation's filmmakers.

Korean culture came under attack during the Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945. Japan enforced a cultural assimilation policy. During the Japanese rule, Koreans were forced to learn and speak Japanese, adopt the Japanese family name system and Shinto religion, and were forbidden to write or speak the Korean language in schools, businesses, or public places. In addition, the Japanese altered or destroyed various Korean monuments including Gyeongbok Palace and documents which portrayed the Japanese in a negative light were revised.

Both Korea's share a Buddhist and Confucian heritage and a recent history of Christian and Cheondoism ("religion of the Heavenly Way") movements. The North Korean constitution states that freedom of religion is permitted. According to the Western standards of religion, the majority of the North Korean population could be characterized as non-religious. However, the cultural influence of such traditional religions as Buddhism and Confucianism still have an effect on North Korean spiritual life.

Armed Forces

Even though the country has fewer than 25 million people, the country still has the world's fourth largest standing military, at 1.29 million soldiers. This is because North Korea has a law that requires all men to join the military for at least ten years after they graduate high school.

The government says it keeps a large military to protect the country from its enemies, particularly the United States and Japan. However, it is more likely that it exists to keep the government in power and to stop people from speaking out against it.

The land of North Korea is divided into nine areas called provinces and two cities.

Rason, a special city where other countries can make money, called a Special Economic Zone.

Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “North Korea” (revision 10891473, 2026-06-18), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.