North Korea

Succession of Kim Jong-un North Korea and the World Relationship with South Korea

Where is North Korea?

China is to the north and west of North Korea. South Korea is to the south of North Korea. Japan is to the east of North Korea.

does Korea look IfWhat available go toNorth Google Earth and find North Korea like?
Other ways to view North Korea on Google Earth: Place your mouse on the Satellite button and then click on Photos option and you will see photos.

Map From Google Earth http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=39.027719,126.738281&spn=14.423854,35.463867&t=m&

North Koreas Name

North Koreas official name is the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) North Korea is NOT a democracy. A democracy is where power is vested in the people, who express it through a free electoral system. Elections are held to decide who will be the leaders. The definition of democratic is favoring social equality; egalitarian (or without social classes). Communism states that all of the workers own everything but in reality that does not happen.

 "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung, Grandfather First premier 1948-1994 Born 1912; died 1994 "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il Father Second premier 1994-2011 Born 1942; died 2011

North Korean Leaders- While Kim Il-sung was elected his son and grandson are considered dictators, which means they were not elected but took control of the country.

http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2011/iconic_leaders/icon00000000022.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archiv

The Great Successor Kim Jong-un Premier since 2011 Born 1983 or 1984

http://the-diplomat.com/flashpoin

North Koreas capital city is Pyongyang

Click on link to hear audio pronunciation for Pyongyang at
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?pyong01g.wav=Pyongyang

Pyongyang images from

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Pyongyang_montage.png

All CC/PD sources: File:Pyongyang western view April 2010.jpg File:Juche Tower.jpg File:Kumsusan Memorial Palace, Pyongyang.jpg File:PyongYang-Arch of Triumph.jpg File:Arch of Reunification.jpg

The Hermit Kingdom

During Koreas Joseon Dynasty, around the late 1800s, Korea kept to itself and had limited contact with the outside world. Other countries called Korea The Hermit Kingdom. North Korea today continues this isolationist policy. They are very secretive. They do not allow many people into their country. Until 2010, there was only one picture of their future leader, Kim Jong-un.
Only the top North Korean leaders have Internet access. Many North Koreans do not even know it exists. Why do you think North Korea bans the Internet from its citizens?

North Koreans are told over and over that their leaders care for them and that they are great leaders. The following was written about Kim Jonguns grandfather and father, who were both leaders of North Korea before him.

Cult of Personality

Journalist Bradley Martin documented the personality cults of North Korea's "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung and "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il. While visiting North Korea in 1979 he noted that nearly all music, art, and sculpture that he observed glorified "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung, whose personality cult was then being extended to his son, "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il. Kim Il-sung rejected the notion that he had created a cult around himself and accused those who suggested so of "factionalism". A U.S. religious freedom investigation confirmed Martin's observation that North Korean schoolchildren learn to thank Kim Il-sung for all blessings as part of the cult. Listen to an example of what plays on their radios. The song is about Kim Jong-uns father and is called No Motherland without you (with English and French subtitles) Click on the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhxvhThqTTI&feature=related

Reflection Questions?
How would you feel if you could only listen to music about how great your leader is? What part of the Constitution prevents this action from happening in the U.S.? After reading the paragraph, what is another reason that North Korea bans Internet access? Using evidence from the paragraph

Cult of Personality

A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships.

For example Kim Jong-uns grandfather, Kim Il Sung, called the Great Leader, had 34,000 statues of himself built

Kim Jong-un punishes people for not crying at his fathers death
YouTube video of North Korean mourners http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dowA-daEESQ North Korea To Punish Mourners Who Were Insincere An anonymous source tells the Daily NK, a South Koreabased publication in opposition of the North Korean regime, that "authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn't participate in the organized gatherings" to mourn the death of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il, and to those "who did participate but didn't cry and didn't seem genuine.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/north-korea-punish-mourners-insincere-kim-jong-il_n_1204377.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl7%7

Every day from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm they have vehicles for broadcast propaganda parked on busy What full part of the U.S. Constitution prevents a person roads of people going to and from work, noisily from being grabbed Kim from the street in the U.S.? working to proclaim Jong-uns greatness , the source explained.
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=8668

Juche system
North Korea believes in the Juche system.
(Pronounced choo-CHAY or click on link to hear The Juche http://www.sidekicktaekwondo.com/Juche.wav)

system stresses national selfreliance, extreme isolation, and racial purity. North Koreans are not allowed to not marry non-Koreans.

http://www.mstrum.com/onmywaytokorea/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/north-korean-propaganda-juche-seon-gun-24.jpg

The picture says Long live the great Juche

North Korea and the United States President Bush first calls North Korea part of the Axis of Evil" in his 2002 State of the Union Address.
President Bush called North Korea "a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens. President Bush was concerned that North Korea would sell nuclear weapons to terrorists. This announcement came right after September 11. In 2003, North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty, which was an agreement not to create or test nuclear weapons.

From March 2011, U.S. Department of States Comment about North Korea

North Koreas Aggressive Actions

Despite the tremendous opportunities in Asia that have become part of our popular Corvette Cheonan discourse, one country stands out as an outlier, and in fact an impediment, to the regions promising future: the Democratic Peoples Republic of Koreas (DPRK). The DPRKs brazen attack on the ROK (Republic of Korea) corvette Cheonan in March of last year, its recent disclosure of a uranium enrichment program, its shelling of Yeonpyong Island that resulted in the tragic loss of South Korean lives, and its ongoing human rights violations underscore the Click for video of shelling of Yeonpyong threat that the DPRKs policies and Island provocations, including its nuclear and ballistic http://www.youtube.com/watc missile programs and proliferation activities, Reading for Understanding : global What five items did North Korea do pose to regional stability and security.
http://www.state.gov/p/eap/rls/rm/2011/03/157472.htm

http://www.armybase.us/2010/04/south-korea-c

that could destabilize the region? What does destabilize mean? What is a corvette? (Hint: it is not a car in this context) How could you find out the meaning of these words? What does provocations mean? What are proliferation activities? What other words are

 North Korea spends the most money, compared to its gross domestic product, of all the countries in the world on building up its military. Why?

http://padresteve.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/north_korea_military_pa http://media.kimatv.com/images/110112_north_korea_military.jpg

Koreans often use the proverb 'when whales fight, the shrimps back is broken' to describe their countrys attack by larger, more powerful neighbors, China and Japan, throughout its history.

Out of its 2,000-year-history, it has been invaded and occupied for 900 years by foreign forcesChina, the Mongols, the Manchu, and Japan.

Japan invades Korea in 1910 and rules it until 1945

Japan treated the Koreans very harshly. They took jobs that Koreans had and many Koreans were unemployed. They made Koreans speak Japanese and made them change their Korean names to Japanese. How would you feel if you were told you couldnt speak English anymore and had to change your name?

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/images/photos2010/fl20100822x1a.jp

In 1945, Korea is liberated from Japan

The USSR (Russia) arrives from the North to attack the Japanese. The USSR wanted Korea to be a communist country. The U.S. arrives from the South to attack the Japanese. The U.S. wanted Korea to be a democratic country. They divided Korea at the 38th Parallel to avoid more fighting. They did not ask the Koreans if they wanted their country divided.

http://www.sdpb.org/EducationalServicesGuide/etvprograms/pdf/2othExtras/MA

Korean War
In 1950, North Koreas leader, Kim Il-sung, (grandfather to Kim Jong-un) orders the North Korean military to attack South Korea. The YouTube video shows how at first North Korea was winning but as the UN forces enter into the battle South Korea starts to win. The dynamics change again when China enters the battle. After watching the video answer the question Why do you think China entered the war?

http ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTN5W4NJ3DM&fe

Millions of People Died during the Korean War

http://media-3.web.britannica.com/eb-media/99/72799-004-37459A7C.gif

Korean War Peace Treaty

In 1953, the Korean War Peace Treaty was signed. An armistice is when both sides agree to stop fighting, however, North Korea and South Korea are still officially at war.

DMZ- Demilitarized Zone

The DMZ is a buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea. It is 160 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. There are 1 million land mines in it. There are 2 million

http://

North Korea Today

Bush's 'Evil' Trio Holds Impact Over U.S. Decade Later By BRIAN MURPHY Associated Press, February 4, 2012 (AP), http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bushs-evil-trio-holds-sway-usdecade-15513264

Bush's speech came less than two years after a landmark trip to North Korea by Madeleine Albright, President Bill Clinton's secretary of state. North Korea reacted to the Axis of Evil" label by calling it "little short of declaring a war," and it went on to twice detonate nuclear devices and to test-fire missiles. While the relationship with the U.S. remains tense, the death in December of Kim Jong Il, who led North Korea during the Bush administration, opened the way for his young, inexperienced son, Kim Jong-un. His government has recently suggested through state media that it remains open to suspending uranium enrichment in return for food aid.

North Korea Today

While China is North Korea's major economic and political backer, relations with the U.S. are a high priority among officials in Pyongyang. North Korea's willingness to make a deal with Washington is seen as a crucial pointer to how the country will behave as it extends the Kim dynasty into a third generation. All eyes are on Kim Jong-un to see how he consolidates power. There are fears that North Korea could seek to bolster his credentials and strengthen national unity by conducting a missile or nuclear test, or by picking a fight with South Korea. The current nuclear crisis began in October 2002 when the Bush administration said North Korea admitted to a secret uranium program during U.S.North Korean talks in Pyongyang. North Korea long rejected the uranium allegations, but in 2010 it unveiled an industrial-scale uranium enrichment

North Korea Today

South Korean analysts differ about the importance of Bush's now-famous phrase. Jeung Young-tae of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul said it was part of Bush's "realistic North Korea policy" responding to North Korea's tactic of disavowing nuclear ambitions to get aid while covertly breaking its word. "The Bush administration came to understand the true nature of North Korea," Jeung said. Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor at Korea University, said, however, that the Axis of Evil" designation "considerably undermined" ties with North Korea. "It was a turning point," Yoo said. "In the following ten years, North Korea and the United States have failed to build mutual trust between them. Bush's 'Evil' Trio Holds Sway Over US Decade Later By BRIAN MURPHY Associated Press, February 4, 2012 (AP),

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bushs-evil-trio-holds-sway-us-decade-15513264

North Korea Today

People debate about how to handle the North Korea situation. How do you deal with a country that is aggressive to other countries? Hillary Clinton comments as the U.S. Secretary of State We both share a common interest in a peaceful and stable transition in North Korea as well as ensuring regional peace and stability. The United States and Japan are partners in the so-called Six Party Talks, which, along with South Korea, China and Russia, aim to rid North Korea of its nuclear program Double click you the link below to hear a 30 if you were How would deal with North Korea second longer speech. the U.S. President?

The Future?
In April and May of 2011, The United States and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) plan to conduct military exercises in the area. No one knows for sure what will happen.

What do you think could happen? Why?

Reflection Questions
The Hermit Kingdom was a name used to describe Korea prior to 1900. Why could North Korea be called a Hermit Kingdom today? What are some of the differences between North Korea and the United States?

Group Activity
Pretend you are a member of Congress.
Japan is nervous about the possibility of North Korea attacking them with nuclear weapons. Read Japans Nuclear Future: Policy Debate, Prospects and US Interests http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL34487.pdf (page 1 Introduction, page 2 to 3 An Evolving Security Environment in Asia, page 9 International Diplomatic Consequences, and p 12 Future of the Korean Peninsula) and decide if you think it is a good idea or a bad idea for Japan to develop nuclear weapons. Why did you make your decision? What do you think North Koreas reaction may be if Japan creates nuclear weapons? Why? If there is time, create a PowerPoint justifying your analysis. Be sure to include facts for your decision.

See Columbia Universitys Asia for Educators site for more information and lesson plans about Koreas past and present and other Asian countries. Free classes are offered to teachers in certain States. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/tps/1950_ko.htm

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