Everyone's heard a thing or two about North Korea, the "hermit kingdom" that sits on the east coast of China.
North Korea created its own time zone.
Still, the one thing that remains a bit of a mystery is what goes on inside the hermit kingdom, as data isn't readily available or reliable. But check out below some of the things we do know about what makes the country tick:
Starting August 15, the country now goes by Pyongyang Time, which will bring back the country to the time zone used on the Korean peninsula before Japanese
Since Kim Jong Un took power, it has gotten more expensive to defect from the hermit kingd
It costs about $8,000 to get to China, which is way more than the average North Korean can afford, considering the GDP per capita is $1,800
The average annual income in North Korea is estimated to be between $1,000 and $2,000. We used $1,500 in our calculation.
This height difference is attributed to the fact that 6 million North Koreans are in need of food, and one-third of children are chronically malnourished
An independent kingdom for much of the past millennium, Korea was occupied by Japan in 1905 following the Russo-Japanese War; five years later, Japan formally annexed the entire peninsula. Following World War II, Korea was split with the northern half coming under Soviet-sponsored Communist domination. After failing in the Korean War (1950-53) to conquer the US-backed republic in the southern portion by force, North Korea, under its founder President KIM Il Sung, adopted a policy of ostensible diplomatic and economic "self-reliance" as a check against excessive Soviet or Communist Chinese influence. It molded political, economic, and military policies around the core ideological objective of eventual unification of Korea under Pyongyang's control. KIM's son, the current ruler KIM Jong Il, was officially designated as KIM's successor in 1980 and assumed a growing political and managerial role until his father's death in 1994. He assumed full power without opposition.
Most tourists bring from North Korea images of macabre structures built to serve as tools of propaganda for current regime. Well... there might be needed a time distance to appreciate this kind of heritage - when this will be a part of rather distant past.
It is illegal for the North Korean people to leave their country without the regime’s permission, and the regime attempts to restrict the people’s movement even inside their own country. If you wish to travel to another part of the country, you are supposed to have a specific purpose and obtain permission from your work unit. If you do not live in Pyongyang, the showcase capital where most resources are concentrated, you will likely be denied access. The regime has also forcibly relocated hundreds of thousands of North Koreans to less favorable parts of the country as a form of punishment and political persecution.
1 Arirang.
2 Football. 2.1 1966 World Cup. 2.2 2010 World Cup. 2.3 Domestic Football. 2.4 Domestic Football for Women.
3 Ice hockey.
4 Golf.
5 Basketball.
6 North Korea in the Olympics.
7 Professional wrestling.
8 Sport in North Korean cinema.