North Korea Map

Borders and position

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), occupies the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. It covers about 120,500 square kilometers and has about 26.6 million people (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate). Almost all of its northern frontier is formed by two rivers that rise on Mount Paektu: the Yalu (Amnok) flowing west to the Yellow Sea and the Tumen flowing east to the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Both separate it from China, and in its last few kilometers the Tumen also forms a short border with Russia near the port of Rason. To the south the Demilitarized Zone, set by the 1953 armistice, divides it from South Korea. Most foreign trade crosses the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge between Sinuiju and the Chinese city of Dandong, and a rail bridge over the Tumen links the country to Russia; construction of a road bridge to Russia began in 2025.

Mountains, rivers and the western plains

Roughly 80 percent of the country is mountains and uplands. Mount Paektu (2,744 meters), a volcano on the Chinese border with a crater lake at its summit, is the highest point on the peninsula; its eruption around 946 AD was one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 2,000 years. South of it the Kaema Plateau and the Rangnim and Hamgyong mountains make the north and east rugged and thinly settled, while the Diamond Mountains (Kumgangsan) rise above the east coast. Most people and nearly all the rice land are on the western plains of the Pyongan and Hwanghae provinces, crossed by the Taedong River, which runs through Pyongyang.

Climate

The climate is continental, with long, cold, dry winters and a short, hot, wet summer. Pyongyang's January average is several degrees below freezing and the northern interior is far colder. Most of the year's rain falls in July and August, and heavy monsoon rains regularly cause floods along the Yalu and in the west. Foreign tourism is tightly controlled and has been largely closed since 2020; as of 2025 the main exceptions were Russian groups, including visitors to the new Wonsan-Kalma beach resort.

Provinces and Major Cities

The country is divided into nine provinces (North and South Pyongan, Chagang, Ryanggang, North and South Hamgyong, Kangwon, and North and South Hwanghae) plus the capital, Pyongyang, and a few special cities such as Rason and Nampo. Figures below are from the 2008 census, the most recent full count:

• Pyongyang - About 3.3 million in the capital's administrative area, on the Taedong River, with Kim Il-sung Square, the Juche Tower and the unfinished Ryugyong Hotel
• Hamhung - About 770,000, the east coast's chemical and fertilizer center, with the port of Hungnam
• Chongjin - About 670,000, a steel and port city in the far northeast
• Nampo - About 370,000, Pyongyang's port, behind the West Sea Barrage across the Taedong estuary
• Wonsan - About 360,000, an east coast port and the site of the Kalma resort
• Sinuiju - About 360,000, on the Yalu opposite Dandong and the main crossing point for trade with China

Kaesong, just north of the DMZ, was the capital of the Goryeo dynasty; its historic monuments and the Koguryo tombs near Pyongyang are North Korea's two UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The history that drew the border

Japan ruled Korea from 1910 to 1945. When it surrendered, Soviet forces occupied the peninsula north of the 38th parallel, and the DPRK was proclaimed in September 1948 under Kim Il-sung. The Korean War of 1950-1953 ended in an armistice along a line close to the old parallel, and no peace treaty has followed. Kim Il-sung was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il in 1994 and his grandson Kim Jong-un in December 2011. The state ideology is Juche (self-reliance), and the economy remains centrally planned, with recurring food shortages and a famine in the 1990s. North Korea carried out six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017 and is under UN sanctions. In 2024 Kim Jong-un declared South Korea a separate, hostile state and dropped the long-standing goal of reunification, and in June 2024 he signed a mutual-defense treaty with Russia; North Korea acknowledged in April 2025 that its troops had fought in Russia's Kursk region.

Interesting Facts

• The Juche calendar, which counts years from Kim Il-sung's birth in 1912, was quietly dropped from state media in October 2024 in favor of the Gregorian year
• From 2015 to 2018 North Korea kept its own "Pyongyang Time" of UTC+8:30 before returning to UTC+9, the same as South Korea
• Official histories place Kim Jong-il's birth at a guerrilla camp on Mount Paektu; Soviet records point to a camp near Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East
• The 330-meter Ryugyong Hotel, begun in 1987, had its glass exterior completed in 2011 but has never opened
• With about 1.3 million active personnel (IISS estimate), the Korean People's Army is one of the largest militaries in the world