ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Korea, North. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Korea, North. North Koreans have more to eat than during the worst shortages, in 1997, largely because of international aid. Foreign humanitarian groups estimate that up to 300,000 North Koreans have fled to China since 1995 to escape food shortages. North Korean authorities control all trade unions, which they use to monitor workers, mobilize them to meet production targets, and provide them with health care, schooling, and welfare services. Authorities subject North Koreans to intensive political and ideological indoctrination through the mass media, schools, and work and neighbourhood associations.
