The name Korea derives from the name Goryeo (also spelled Koryŏ).

The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo (Koguryŏ) in the 5th century as a shortened form of its name.

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (abbreviated as DPRK or DPR Korea), is a sovereign state in East Asia constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang is the nation's capital and largest city.

North Korea operates re-education and prison camps, akin to the gulag prisons of the Soviet Union.

Soviet forces withdrew from the North in 1948 and most American forces withdrew from the South in 1949.Landlords and Japanese collaborators fled to the South, where there was no land reform and sporadic unrest.