The Democratic People s Republic of Korea (Korean 조선 민주 주의 주의, [T͡ɕo̞sʰʌ̹n Mind͡ʑud͡ʑu (ɰ) I Inmin Ko̞ŋβWa̠ɡuk̚], Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk), known as North Korea, is a state in East Asia. He was proclaimed on 9 September 1948 and includes the northern part of the Korean peninsula. North Korea, though officially referred to as a Democratic People s Republic , is ruled dictatorial and is considered the world s most restrictive political system of the present. In the democratic index of the magazine The Economist, the country occupies the last of 167 seats. Until Annexion Korea s annexation by Japan 1910 there had been states that extended over the entire peninsula. The country s division began after the Second World War with the division of Korea in an American and a Soviet occupation zone, from which two independent states emerged in 1948 as a result of the division of Korea. The Korean War (1950 to 1953) sealed the cleavage of the Korean peninsula (see Korea conflict). North ...