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North Korea HISTORICAL SETTING
North Korea came into being in 1945, in the midst of a
prolonged confrontation between the United States and the Soviet
Union. North Korea was, and in some ways remains, a classic Cold
War state, driven by the demands of the long-standing conflict
with the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea), and the United
States and its allies. It emerged in the heyday of Stalinism,
which influenced North Korea's decision to give priority to heavy
industry in its economic program
(see Economic Development and Structural Change
, ch. 3). North Korea was a state forged in
warfare: by a civil struggle fought at the beginning of the
regime and by a vicious fratricidal war fought while the system
was still in infancy. All these influences combined to produce a
hardened leadership that knew how to hold onto power. But North
Korea also evolved as a rare synthesis between foreign models and
native influences; the political system was deeply rooted in
native soil, drawing on Korea's long history of unitary existence
on a small peninsula surrounded by greater powers.
Data as of June 1993
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