[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on North and South Korean Culture
The purpose of this paper is to compare the differences and similarities between North Korea and South Korea in different fields of life and profession.North Korea is located on the northern part of the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. It is bound by China to the north, Russia to the northeast, South Korea to the south, the Yellow Sea to the west. Around 80% of the Korean Peninsula is covered by mountains with nearly the whole of north central Korea dominated by the Machollyong, Hamgyong, Pujol-Lyong, Nangnim, Myohyang and Chogu-Ryong Mountain Ranges.
South Korea is located on the southern part of the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. It is bound by North Korea to the north, the Yellow Sea to the west as well as the Korea and Cheju Straits to the south. Mountains cover around 80% of the Korean Peninsula while South Korea has a rugged and mountainous terrain. The dominant topographical feature is the Taebaek Range, with its lesser branch, the Sobaek Range.
Communist countries are notorious for their secretive approach to statistical data but none of them rival North Korea in this regard. From the early 1960s North Korea ceased to publish economic statistics. When in the late 1980s Pyongyang was planning a population census, it applied to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) for technical assistance. The UNFPA officials agreed on the condition that they are given some of the resultant statistical data and in due course they received it.
In 1987, the North Korean population was 21.4 million roughly half of South Korea’s and in 2002 it was estimated at 22.5 million people. Unlike the South, in the North there are more females than males (100:97.5). This is an indication that the war losses were much heavier in the North. Needless to say, the North does not have the selective abortion problem that looms large in the South......
