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- 1948 - Democratic People's Republic of Korea proclaimed, with Kim Il-sung installed as leader. Soviet troops withdraw. 1950 - South declares independence, sparking North Korean invasion and the Korean War.
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The history of North Korea began with the end of World War II in 1945. The surrender of Japan led to the division of Korea at the 38th parallel, with the Soviet Union occupying the north, and the United States occupying the south.
- Overview
- The Kim Il-Sung era
- The 1950s and ’60s
- Domestic priorities and international cooperation
- Nuclear ambitions
- Internal challenges and international relations
history of North Korea, a survey of important events and people in the history of North Korea since the Korean War. For a discussion of the earlier history of the peninsula, see Korea.
In 1948, when the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established, Kim Il-Sung became the first premier of the North Korean communist regime. In 1949 he became chairman of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), created from communist parties founded earlier. Until his death in 1994, Kim ruled the country with an iron hand by promoting a personality...
In the aftermath of the Korean War, Kim purged the so-called “domestic faction”—an indigenous communist group that had remained in Korea during the colonial period—amid much scapegoating for the disastrous war. After 1956, as the Sino-Soviet conflict intensified, Kim shifted his positions vis-à-vis Moscow and Beijing no fewer than three times: from pro-Soviet to neutral, to pro-Chinese, and finally to independent. During 1956–58, he carried out a purge against the pro-Chinese group known as the Yenan faction and eliminated a pro-Soviet faction from the KWP Central Committee.
In 1966, after a visit to P’yŏngyang by Soviet Premier Aleksey N. Kosygin, Kim announced what became known as the independent party line in North Korea, which stressed the principles of “complete equality, sovereignty, mutual respect, and noninterference among the communist and workers’ parties.” From this party line, KWP theoreticians developed four self-reliance (juche) principles: “autonomy in ideology, independence in politics, self-sufficiency in economy, and self-reliance in defense.”
In the late 1960s the regime implemented a program for strengthening the armed forces. As part of the effort to fortify the entire country, more military airfields were constructed and large underground aircraft hangars were built. In addition, a large standing army and a strong militia were maintained.
North Korea’s emphasis on strengthening its military forces proceeded hand in hand with its continued focus on the development of a self-reliant economy. With aid from the Soviet Union, China, and the countries of eastern Europe, North Korea implemented a series of economic development plans and made significant gains. But as external aid declined sharply—first from the Soviet Union beginning in the late 1950s and then from China at the start of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s—the seven-year plan of 1961–67 was seriously affected, as indicated by the extension of the plan for another three years.
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Kim Il-Sung died on July 8, 1994, and his son Kim Jong Il succeeded him. However, he did not assume the posts of secretary-general of the KWP or president of North Korea. Instead, he consolidated his power over several years. In 1997 he officially became head of the KWP, and in 1998 the post of president was written out of North Korea’s constitution—Kim Il-Sung was given the posthumous title “eternal president”—and Kim Jong Il was reelected chairman of the National Defense Commission, which became the country’s highest office. (A further revision of the constitution in April 2009 added the title “supreme leader” to the description of Kim Jong Il’s position.) His regime adopted the basic guideline of “military first politics” (sŏngun chŏngch’i) to safeguard it from any unforeseen adverse impact resulting from such events as the collapse of the Soviet Union and eastern European communist regimes in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the persistent economic hardships at home.
The death of Kim Il-Sung had come at a critical time for North Korea. The country had been locked in a dispute over nuclear issues with the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had been denied access by the North Koreans to an experimental facility at Yŏngbyŏn, where it was suspected that North Korea was diverting plutonium to build nuclear weapons. In the summer of 1994 the North had been preoccupied with the transfer of power to Kim Jong Il; however, by October the United States and North Korea had signed a nuclear accord (the “Agreed Framework”). Under the terms of this agreement, the North renounced efforts to develop nuclear weapons and pledged to abide by the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Non-proliferation Treaty; NPT), in exchange for which the United States arranged for the financing and construction of two light-water reactors (LWRs) capable of producing electric power. The agreement restored hope for North-South reconciliation and a peaceful reunification of the divided peninsula.
In late August 1998 North Korea fired a multistage, long-range missile eastward over Japanese airspace. This new missile capability caused shock worldwide and precipitated a major global controversy. In addition, suspected underground nuclear facilities were discovered near the sites whose activities were to have been frozen under the terms of the Agreed Framework.
It was reported in 2002 that North Korea was pursuing work toward producing highly enriched uranium, which could then be used to make nuclear weapons. In December of that year North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors from the facility at Yŏngbyŏn. In January 2003 North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and nuclear research operations openly resumed at Yŏngbyŏn. Multiparty talks were initiated to resolve the various nuclear issues and ultimately came to involve the United States, North and South Korea, Russia, China, and Japan. These Six-Party Talks, as they were termed, ended in 2004 without reaching a resolution. In 2005 North Korea claimed to have nuclear weapons capability, although it was unknown whether the claim was true. After having suspended the LWR project for several years, KEDO withdrew its workers from North Korea in January 2006, and in May the organization decided to terminate the project. In October a seismic event was detected at Kilju, North Hamgyŏng province, and North Korea announced that it had carried out an underground test of a nuclear weapon. The country conducted another, more powerful underground nuclear test in May 2009, again near Kilju.
Throughout the 1990s North Korea suffered severe food shortages that caused widespread starvation. In efforts to help North Korea cope with this crisis, South Korea, Japan, the United States, and international relief agencies (including the UN World Food Programme), provided emergency food and medical assistance. The North Korean government’s response inside the country included officially promoting what it called the “arduous march” (also termed the “meal-skipping campaign”). Despite these measures, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans died of starvation in the latter half of the 1990s, and a UN study found that life expectancy had decreased substantially and infant mortality had increased dramatically. The country’s economic situation began improving in the early 21st century, in part because of North Korea’s own efforts to accommodate certain aspects of market economics, including more open trading policies. In late 2009, however, the economy was thrown temporarily into chaos when a government currency-reform program reduced the won to 1 percent of its former value while limiting individuals to exchanging only a small amount of the old currency for the new. The revaluation—which was aimed in part at curbing private market activity—led to inflation, a food crisis, and public protests as many citizens saw their savings vanish. The government subsequently acknowledged the shortcomings of the reform program, and the official identified as being responsible for its implementation was executed in March 2010.
After Kim Jong Il’s consolidation of power under the 1998 constitution, his regime began to pursue formal diplomatic relations with many countries, including those of western Europe. By early 2001 North Korea had established relations with most of the West, amid a friendlier climate created by the improving inter-Korean relations. The United States, South Korea, and Japan also had reasons for keeping diplomatic channels open with North Korea, such as maintaining peace and seeking improvements in the country’s human rights situation. Despite its successes with other countries, however, North Korea did not make any substantive progress in its diplomatic talks with Japan and the United States, even after years of direct contact.
Relations with the United States in particular reached a low point in January 2002, when U.S. Pres. George W. Bush named North Korea, with Iran and Iraq, as part of an “axis of evil” of countries that were pursuing the development of weapons of mass destruction. Tensions remained high for several years. Multiparty talks in 2008 resulted in the U.S. government’s removal of North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in October, as North Korea took certain previously agreed-upon steps in connection with the pending nuclear issues.
In contrast to the hopeful beginning of the 21st century, however, the ensuing years saw the erosion of the gains that had been made in international cooperation. The joint ventures established under the “sunshine policy” after 2000 were suspended by the North within a few years. North Korea’s launch of several rockets in 2009—which the international community generally suspected were tests of ballistic missiles—were considered by many observers to be diplomatically provocative acts.
Kim Jong Un quickly came to power and North Korea made it well known. Because Kim Jong Un had no leadership experience or training like his father Kim Jong Il did, North Korea watchers were worried about the instability of Kim rising to leadership, and that it could ultimately trigger the collapse of North Korea.
Sep 28, 2017 · By 2003, North Korea had withdrawn from the NPT, expelled international weapons inspectors and resumed nuclear research at a facility in Yongbyon. Three years later, Kim’s government announced ...
Apr 26, 2019 · 26 April 2019. A chronology of key events: 1945 - After World War II, Japanese occupation of Korea ends with Soviet troops occupying the north, and US troops the south. AFP. The Korean War...
Oct 9, 2015 · On 17 October 1926, a teenage Kim Il-sung, who would later become North Korea's first leader, set up the "Down-with-Imperialism Union". It was founded, so the propaganda goes, to fight against...
Dec 10, 2021 · Kim Jong-il began to take over internal affairs within North Korea, centralising government and becoming increasingly autocratic, even within his father’s lifetime. He demanded absolute obedience and oversaw even the smallest details of government personally.
