Factbook
History of North Korea — Timeline
Key dates in the history of North Korea, from the Magna Factbook and the Universal Encyclopedia.
1894After the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), Korea was occupied by Imperial Japan.
1910Following the collapse of Silla in the 9th century, Korea was unified under the Koryo (Goryeo; 918-1392) and the Chosen (Joseon; 1392-1910) dynasties.
1910In 1910, Japan formally annexed the entire peninsula.
1945Independence: 15 August 1945 (from Japan).
1948In 1948, North Korea (formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK) was founded under President KIM Il Sung, who consolidated power and cemented autocratic one-party rule under the Korean Worker's Party (KWP).
1950North Korea failed to conquer UN-backed South Korea (formally the Republic of Korea or ROK) during the Korean War (1950-53), after which a demilitarized zone separated the two Koreas.
1980KIM Il Sung's son, KIM Jong Il, was officially designated as his father's successor in 1980, and he assumed a growing political and managerial role until the elder KIM's death in 1994.
1991After the end of Soviet aid in 1991, North Korea faced serious economic setbacks that exacerbated decades of economic mismanagement and resource misallocation.
2002Starting in 2002, North Korea began to tolerate semi-private markets but has made few other efforts to meet its goal of improving the overall standard of living.
2010KIM Jong Un was publicly unveiled as his father's successor in 2010.
2010Military spending: defense spending is a regime priority; between 2010 and 2020, military expenditures accounted for an estimated 20-30% of North Korea's GDP annually; spending estimates ranged from $7 billion to $11 billion annually; in 2024, North Korea announced that it would spend nearly 16% of state expenditures on defense; North Korea in the 2010s and 2020s has increasingly relied on illicit activities — including cybercrime — to generate revenue for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs to evade US and UN sanctions.
2011Following KIM Jong Il's death in 2011, KIM Jong Un quickly assumed power and has since occupied the regime's highest political and military posts.
2018The move followed earlier proclamations that it was scrapping a 2018 military pact with South Korea to de-escalate tensions along their militarized border, abandoning the country’s decades-long pursuit of peaceful unification with South Korea, and designating the South as North Korea’s “principal enemy.” North Korea is a dictatorship, single-party communist state in Eastern Asia, northern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan, between China and South Korea.
2020At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, North Korea instituted a nationwide lockdown that severely restricted its economy and international engagement.
2021Since then, KIM has repeatedly expressed concerns with the regime's economic failures and food problems, but in 2021, he vowed to continue "self-reliant" policies and has reinvigorated his pursuit of greater regime control of the economy.
2023Generation mix — fossil fuels: 36.9% of total installed capacity (2023 est.); solar: 0.6% of total installed capacity (2023 est.); hydroelectricity: 62.5% of total installed capacity (2023 est.) Energy use: 23.83 million Btu/person (2023 est.).
2023Industries: military products; machine building, electric power, chemicals; mining (coal, iron ore, limestone, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and precious metals), metallurgy; textiles, food processing; tourism Agriculture: maize, vegetables, rice, apples, cabbages, fruits, sweet potatoes, potatoes, beans, soybeans (2023) Electricity access: 54.7% (2022 est.).
2023Languages: Korean Religions: traditionally Buddhist and Confucian, some Christian and syncretic Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way) Urban population: 63.2% of total population (2023).
2023Major urban areas: 3.158 million PYONGYANG (capital) (2023) one of the last centrally planned economies; hard hit by COVID-19, crop failures, international sanctions, and isolationist policies; declining growth and trade, and heavily reliant on China; poor exchange rate stability; economic data integrity issues Unemployment: 2.9% (2024 est.).
2024As of 2024, despite slowly renewing cross-border trade with China, North Korea remained one of the world's most isolated countries and one of Asia's poorest.
2024In 2024, Pyongyang announced it was ending all economic cooperation with South Korea.
2025Population: 26.4 million (2025 estimate).
