North Korea is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea.  The Amnok River and the Tumen River form the border between North Korea and the People's Republic of China.  A section of the Tumen River in the extreme northeast is the border with Russia.

The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was annexed by Japan following the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.  It was divided into Soviet and American occupied zones in 1945, following the end of World War II.  North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations–supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones.  Both North and South Korea claimed sovereignty over the Korean Peninsula as a whole, which led to the Korean War of 1950.  The Armistice Agreement of 1953 ended the fighting; however, the two countries are officially still at war with each other, as a peace treaty was never signed. Both states were accepted into the United Nations in 1991.