It’s been 80 years since the signing of the armistice that stopped - but did not officially end - the Korean War. The Korean Peninsula is divided by a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 154-mile long and 2.5-mile wide zone along the 38th Parallel.
To better understand North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), one must travel back at least two centuries. For it is in the history of the Korean Peninsula, not just the land above the mid-20th century division, where an integral part of the bigger picture reveals itself.
