North+Korea+-+Pablo



Total Population - 25.4 Million CBR - 14.5 per 1,000 CDR - 9.2 per 1,000 Life Expectancy - 69.8 TFR - 1.98 IMR - 24.5 per 1,000
 * Demographics**

For 2017, North Korea's population pyramid suggests that it is in stage 3 potentially transitioning into stage 4. You can tell due to its seemingly decreasing young population and large middle aged population. For 2050, although generally smaller, the total population appears to be a stage 4 on the track to a stage 5. The middle age population appears to be slightly bigger than in 2017 as the 20-34 ridge appears to be rising up to the 40-64 ridge. The younger population is clearly diminishing.
 * Population Pyramid Analysis**

North Korea is a pretty miserable place to live. Although the official name of the country is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, it is a very communist country. About half of the entire population lives in a state of "extreme poverty" where malnutrition stunts the development of 1 in 3 children. Most families are expected to provide desks and school supplies when enrolling a child into school, despite the countries $1,800 GDP. Only about 16% of the population has mobile phones with spotty, unreliable service. Electricity is also limited to a couple hours of use per day. Their dictator, Kim Jong-Un, is rumored to be a billionaire, storing most of his money in multiple bank accounts outside of the country.
 * Article**

https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2013/04/12/heres-how-lousy-life-is-in-north-korea

Why do you think Kim Jong-Un oppresses his people so much? Notice how the population pyramid in 2050 has the scale in thousands, as opposed to millions like the 2017 population pyramid, why do you think this is so?
 * Thoughtful Question**

=FOLK CULTURE=

Although North Korea is a relatively new country being established in 1948, much of the previous Korean folk culture traditions have remained alive. The basis and most important element of their culture is family. Koreans live a very family oriented life. It is a very hierarchical scene, where the father is in charge of the household and eldest son assists in important matters. Women are also not allowed to partake in important decision making or affairs. With women becoming more powerful and taking more influential positions like political heads or teachers in the modern world, the ideology of women being inferior in a Korean household may begin to change soon. The family element in Korean culture is heavily influenced by the teachings of Confucius. Family is also present in many other components of every day life. Marriage for example is not seen as two individuals coming together, but two families. The two families then participate in a series of very important traditional marriage rituals, like matchmaking, pony wedding parades, and having the couple drink from the same cup.

Why does the concept of family seem so overlooked in American society? Why do you think a majority of Asia values family so much more? Can you think of any other traditional marriage customs?

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=Language=

Korean is one of the oldest living languages up to date. Its origins are also largely uncertain. There are a large number of theories as to what family the Korean language comes from like Ural-Altaic, Tibetan, Indo-European, Chinese, and Dravidian Ainu. Today, we believe that Korean is most closely linked to the Ural-Altaic, which is the same family that produced Mongolian and Hungarian. This makes some sense as Mongolia is not that far from the Korean Peninsula. Korean also sounds slightly similar to Japanese. Korean is North Korea's national language and in 2008 had a literacy rate of 100%. Although North Korea only has a population of around 25 million people, the Korean language has over 70 million native speakers, largely due to South Korea, as they speak the same parent language. North Korea has slightly different dialects of the language, like P'yong'ando and Hamgyongdo.

Article on Language Issue: []

This article discusses that language is actually the biggest challenge for North Korean refugees in South Korea. Today, there are around 27,000 North Korean "defectors" living in South Korea. Since division in the 1940's, the N Korean form of Korean hasn't changed really at all, but the S Korean has, making it very challenging for N Koreans to adjust to life. The S Korean Government is taking steps to teach N Koreans the new aspects of their language, like vocabulary.

Here is a video of a N Korean student saying the same thing as a S Korean student side by side. []

According to the video, the North Korean student only understood about 50% of the terms in the South Korean textbook. Why do you think that the North Korean language hasn't evolved much at all in the last 70 years, but the South Korean language has thrived?

=Religion=

Historically, the Korean peninsula had a good variety of religions like Buddhism, Confucianism, and also some local ones like Korean shamanism and Chondogyo. There are even some Christians in the area, although they make up a minority. After the split between North and South, North Korea established an ideology known as Juche under Kim Il Sung. Today, this ideology is regarded more as a religion and is forced onto its people. Juche followers believe that Kim Il Sung is their god, and Kim Jong Il is the son of god. They have two lives, a physical one and a political one.

Historically, the Korean peninsula has housed a multitude of religions, but after the split, North Korea developed Juche and imposed it on its people.

Juche was spread through a from of forced diffusion/conversion.

As far as religious conflict goes, Juche was forced onto the North Koreans. I one case, a lady was washing her clothes in a river and dropped what seemed to be a bible. Another lady reported her to the police. This underground non follower and her father were taken to government facilities for an unannounced amount of time. There, they were presumably invested and interrogated. They were brought back to a public market where they were tried and executed. The thing is, there wasn't really a trial, it was just an announcement of offense and an immediate verdict afterwards.

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Question: Why do you think Kim Il Sung created this ideology and forced it upon his country's citizens? Can you think of any other similar examples in history of people being executed over there religious beliefs?