North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia and a unitary single-party socialist state under a totalitarian hereditary dictatorship. The country is governed by the Kim dynasty, which has ruled since its establishment in 1948. The origin of the DPRK is rooted in the division of the Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel following Japan's surrender at the end of World War II in 1945. The Soviet Union occupied the north, and the United States occupied the south, and the failure to agree on unification led to the establishment of two separate, rival governments in 1948. The subsequent Korean War from 1950 to 1953 ended in a stalemate with the Korean Armistice Agreement, which replaced the 38th parallel with the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), formalizing the division.
The political mechanism of North Korea is centered on the official state ideology of Juche (meaning "self-reliance"), which was promoted by the founder, Kim Il Sung, and is now described as the philosophical principle of Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism. Juche emphasizes political independence, economic self-reliance, and military self-defense, and it is instrumental in reinforcing the personality cult around the Kim family. The country follows a Songun or "military-first" policy, prioritizing the Korean People's Army in state affairs and resource allocation. North Korea connects to international security concerns primarily through its nuclear weapons program, which the country has enshrined in its constitution.
Recently, North Korea has made significant constitutional and policy changes, notably in January 2024, when Kim Jong Un called for constitutional revisions to designate South Korea as the "principal enemy" and formally abandoned the long-standing goal of reunification. The constitution was amended to remove all references to national reunification and newly define its territory as being bordered by South Korea, signaling a shift toward a formal state-to-state relationship between "two hostile states". The Supreme People's Assembly also voted in September 2023 to enshrine the country's nuclear program in the constitution, making the policy of growing its nuclear capacity a permanent law.