North Korea Background

North Korea

• Japan annexed Korea in 1910.• Following WWII the USSR moved into North

Korea and the US landed in South Korea. They divided the country into two occupied zones separated at the 38th Parallel.

Korean War

• 1948: – Kim Il-Sung was named Premier of the North.– The US allowed elections to be held in the South

• 1950: A war civil breaks out between the USSR backed North and the US backed South. (Proxy War)

• 1953: The war ends in a stalemate and the Demilitarized Zone is created along the 38th Parallel.

North Korea• Over the past 60 years, North Korea has had three leaders.

Kim Il-Sung, his son Kim Jong-Il, and now his grandson Kim Jong-Un. These men are essentially worshiped as gods.

• North Korea shut its borders to its citizens and the outside world. They have had limited economic, political, or social connection with the outside world.

North Korea

• Using propaganda, blatant lies, threats, and general lack of knowledge of the outside world, North Korean leaders attempt to convince their followers that their nation is not actually full of poverty, human rights violations, and hunger/illness as we know that it is.