6 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)

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By 1980, there were an estimated 19 million residents of the Democratic People's Republic, a population increasing at an annual rate of 3.2 percent and living on a mountainous land area of 121,730 square kilometers, an expanse slightly smaller than England. In racial composition and language, the people of North Korea are homogeneous. Literacy is estimated at over 95 percent, and school attendance for children and adolescents is judged also over 95 percent. In terms of religious affiliation, North Koreans prior to 1945 were mainly Confucianists and Buddhists, with a minority Christians. But after the inauguration of a communist government in the late 1940s, religious activities became virtually nonexistent. Ever since the Japanese were removed from Korea at the close of World War II, the communist government of North Korea has consistently employed education as the principal instrument to effect four interlinked varieties of revolution. The most fundamental of the four—the ideological revolution—has been conceived as the motivating force behind the other three—the political, economic, and cultural. The goal of the ideological revolution has been to change the attitudes of the populace on a wide range of issues. Today, as has been true over the past quarter-century. North Korea is one of the world's most self-centered, carefully controlled societies, with its ideological focus constantly on the words and personality of Kim II Sung. One serious problem that continues to vex North Korean leaders concerns both the economic and cultural revolutions. It is the problem of peasant apathy and selfishness. The nation's schools and nonformal educational agencies are constantly urged to promote the ideological changes called for in transposing an indifferent people of a Confucianist fuedal-colonial society into an energetic, unified corps pursuing communist goals.