Songbun
''Songbun'' (), formally chulsin-songbun (, from Sino-Korean 出身, "origin" and 成分, "constituent"), is the system of ascribed status used in North Korea. According to the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the American Enterprise Institute, it is based on the political, social, and economic background of one's direct ancestors as well as the behavior of their relatives; according to the North Korean secret police, ''songbun'' is used to classify North Korean citizens into three primary castes—core, wavering, and hostile—in addition to approximately fifty sub-classifications, and determine whether an individual is trusted with responsibilities, is given opportunities within North Korea, or even receives adequate food. The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the American Enterprise Institute states that ''songbun'' affects access to educational and employment opportunities and it particularly determines whether a person is eligible to j ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen River, Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone, Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. North Korea, like South Korea, claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and List of islands of North Korea, adjacent islands. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city. The Korean Peninsula was first inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic period. Its Gojoseon, first kingdom was noted in Chinese records in the early 7th century BCE. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea into Unified Silla, Silla and Balhae in the late 7th century, Korea was ruled by the G ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Committee For Human Rights In North Korea
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), formerly known as the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental research organization that "seeks to raise awareness about conditions in North Korea and to publish research that focuses the world's attention on human rights abuses in that country." Founded in 2001 by a group of foreign policy and human rights specialists, HRNK has published reports on issues relevant to North Korean human rights today. The committee's leadership has testified to Congress about North Korean human rights and China's forced repatriation of North Korean refugees. In April 2012, HRNK held its first major conference on North Korean human rights to launch its publication, ''The Hidden Gulag, Second Edition'', on North Korean political prison camps. History Establishment HRNK was founded in 2001 by a group of foreign policy and human rights specialists to fill a gap in non-governmental expertise ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Workers' Party Of Korea
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), is the sole ruling party of North Korea. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is the oldest active party in Korea. It also controls the Korean People's Army, North Korea's armed forces. The WPK is the largest party represented in the Supreme People's Assembly and coexists with two other legal parties that are completely subservient to the WPK and must accept the WPK's "Vanguard party, leading role" as a condition of their existence. The WPK is banned in South Korea under the National Security Act (South Korea), National Security Act and is sanctioned by the United Nations, the European Union, Australia, and the United States. Officially, the WPK is a communist party guided by Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism, a synthesis of the ideas of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.: "Our Party never expects that there will be any fortuitou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Caste System
A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), follow lifestyles often linked to a particular occupation, hold a ritual status observed within a hierarchy, and interact with others based on cultural notions of exclusion, with certain castes considered as either more pure or more polluted than others. The term "caste" is also applied to morphological groupings in eusocial insects such as ants, bees, and termites. The paradigmatic ethnographic example of caste is the division of India's Hindu society into rigid social groups. Its roots lie in South Asia's ancient history and it still exists; however, the economic significance of the caste system in India seems to be declining as a result of urbanisation and affirmative action programs. A subject of much scholarship by sociologists and ant ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Korean Famine
The North Korean famine (), dubbed by the government as the Arduous March (), was a period of mass starvation together with a general economic crisis from 1995 to 2000 in North Korea. During this time there was an increase in defection from North Korea which peaked towards the end of the famine period. The famine stemmed from a variety of factors. Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly. A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis. The North Korean government and its centrally planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster. North Korea attempted to obtain aid and commercial opportunities, but failed to receive initial attention. Estimates of the death toll vary widely. Out of a total population of approximately 22 million, somewhere between 240,000 and 3,500,000 North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.Noland, Marc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kim Jong Un
Kim Jong Un (born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician and dictator who has served as supreme leader of North Korea since 2011 and general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is the third son of Kim Jong Il, who was the second supreme leader, and a grandson of Kim Il Sung, the founder and first supreme leader of North Korea. From late 2010, Kim was viewed as the successor to the North Korean leadership. Following his father's death in December 2011, state television announced Kim as the "great successor to the revolutionary cause". Kim holds the titles of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs. He is also a member of the Presidium of the WPK Politburo, the highest decision-making body in the country. In July 2012, Kim was promoted to the highest rank of marshal in the Korean People's Army The Korean People's Army (KPA; ) encompasses the combined military forces of North Korea an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brian Hook
Brian H. Hook (born 1968) is an American diplomat, lawyer and government official. In 2021, he joined Cerberus Capital Management as vice chairman for global investments. He is an adjunct professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy. He served as U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from September 2018 to August 2020. He was the Director of Policy Planning under Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Education Hook received a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), University of St. Thomas in 1990, a master's degree in philosophy from Boston College, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Iowa College of Law. Career From 1999 to 2003, Hook practiced corporate law at Hogan & Hartson in Washington. During the George W. Bush administration, Hook served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs; Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the ''Times'' serves as one of the country's Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The New York Times'' had 9.13 million total and 8.83 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the List of newspapers in the United States, highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 296,330 print subscribers, making the ''Times'' the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, following ''The Wall Street Journal'', also based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ko Yong-hui
Ko Yong-hui (; ; 26 June 1952 – 13 August 2004), also spelled Ko Young-hee, was the mistress of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Il and the mother of his successor, Kim Jong Un. Within North Korea, she is only referred to by titles, such as "The Respected Mother who is the Most Faithful and Loyal 'Subject' to the Dear Leader Comrade Supreme Commander", "The Mother of Pyongyang", and "The Mother of Great Songun Korea". Biography Born in Ikuno Korea Town of Osaka, Japan, Ko's birth date and Japanese name in Japanese official records are 26 June 1952 and Takada Hime (高田姫), respectively. Her father, Ko Gyon-tek, worked in an Osaka sewing factory run by Japan's ministry of war, a 16th-generation descendant of the Joseon scholar official, Ko Tŭkchong. She, along with her family, moved to North Korea in May 1961 or 1962 as part of a repatriation program. In the early 1970s, she began working as a dancer for the Mansudae Art Troupe in Pyongyang. Her younger sister Ko Y ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Map Of The Songbun System
A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on a transitory medium such as a computer screen. Some maps change interactively. Although maps are commonly used to depict geographic elements, they may represent any space, real or fictional. The subject being mapped may be two-dimensional such as Earth's surface, three-dimensional such as Earth's interior, or from an abstract space of any dimension. Maps of geographic territory have a very long tradition and have existed from ancient times. The word "map" comes from the , wherein ''mappa'' meant 'napkin' or 'cloth' and ''mundi'' 'of the world'. Thus, "map" became a shortened term referring to a flat representation of Earth's surface. History Maps have been one of the most important human inventions for millennia, allowing humans t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in Japan, following the special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 million in the 2020 census, it is also the largest component of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, which is the List of metropolitan areas in Japan, second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and the 10th-List of urban areas by population, largest urban area in the world with more than 19 million inhabitants. Ōsaka was traditionally considered Japan's economic hub. By the Kofun period (300–538) it had developed into an important regional port, and in the 7th and 8th centuries, it served briefly as the imperial capital. Osaka continued to flourish during the Edo period (1603–1867) and became known as a center of Japanese culture. Following the M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and international security, security, to develop friendly Diplomacy, relations among State (polity), states, to promote international cooperation, and to serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of states in achieving those goals. The United Nations headquarters is located in New York City, with several other offices located in United Nations Office at Geneva, Geneva, United Nations Office at Nairobi, Nairobi, United Nations Office at Vienna, Vienna, and The Hague. The UN comprises six principal organizations: the United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly, the United Nations Security Council, Security Council, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Se ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |