Workers sweep the ground in front of the Grand Monument, a bronze statue of Kim Il Sung, on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang. Kim Il Sung was the pseudonym for Kim Song Ju. Kim was born in Pyongi near Pyongyang in 1912. Kim and his family emigrated to Manchuria in the 1920s. In 1930 Kim founded the Korean Revolutionary Army, a guerrilla group that fought against the Japanese military. With the support of the Soviet Union and China, he became the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948. In the post-Korean War years, Kim developed the idea of Juche, an ideology of self-reliance blended with Marxism thus creating a distinct "native" Korean communism. In1994, at the age of 82, Kim Il Sung died.
A North Korean soldier stands guard in Panmunjom on the 38th parallel in the DMZ, or demilitarized zone. This 2.5 miles wide, 156 miles long no man's land separates North and South Korea. The cease-fire village of Panmunjom was founded on July 27, 1953 and is where the Korean War armistice agreement was signed. South-North talks (MAC meetings) still take place here. In 1976 two American servicemen were hacked to death with axes by North Koreans and in 1983 a Russian tourist defected to the North triggering a gun battle that killed three North Koreans and one Korean soldier. There are an estimated 1.2 million soldiers in North Korea, the world's fifth-largest fighting force. Two-thirds of those soldiers are stationed within 60 miles of the DMZ. There are 37,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea.
An American soldier and a North Korean soldier photograph one another in Panmunjom on the 38th parallel in the DMZ, or demilitarized zone. This 2.5 miles wide, 156 miles long no man's land separates North and South Korea. The cease-fire village of Panmunjom was founded on July 27, 1953 and is where the Korean War armistice agreement was signed. South-North talks (MAC meetings) still take place here. In 1976 two American servicemen were hacked to death with axes by North Koreans and in 1983 a Russian tourist defected to the North triggering a gun battle that killed three North Koreans and one Korean soldier. There are an estimated 1.2 million soldiers in North Korea, the world's fifth-largest fighting force. Two-thirds of those soldiers are stationed within 60 miles of the DMZ. There are 37,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea.
