North Korea vs South Korea
North and South Korea were a single country until the peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel at the end of the Second World War, then fought each other to a stalemate in the 1950–53 Korean War that never formally ended — the two remain technically at war under an armistice, not a peace treaty.
| 🇰🇵 North Korea | 🇰🇷 South Korea | |
|---|---|---|
| Capital | Pyongyang | Seoul |
| Continent | Asia | Asia |
| Population | 26,200,000 | 51,700,000 |
| Area | 120,540 km² | 100,210 km² |
| Currency | North Korean Won | South Korean Won |
| Main language | Korean | Korean |
South Korea's population is roughly 2× North Korea's.
The economic gap that opened up since is one of the starkest anywhere in the world: South Korea built one of the largest, most technologically advanced economies on Earth, home to companies like Samsung and Hyundai, while North Korea remains one of the most isolated and centrally controlled economies, with satellite images of the peninsula at night showing the South brightly lit and the North almost entirely dark.
The Demilitarized Zone between them, roughly 4 km wide and 250 km long, is among the most heavily fortified borders on the planet — and, left largely undisturbed by human activity for seven decades, has become an accidental wildlife refuge.