North Korean Culture

Culture is what sets a society or civilization apart from others and gives it a unique identity based upon that society’s shared ideas, beliefs, morals, customs, and behaviors. Despite the many differences between cultures around the globe, five major characteristics normally define any society’s culture. The first being that culture is learned, or passed down through knowledge, rather than inherited. A culture is also integrated with many different aspects that often tie in to each other and these different parts are shared with other members of the same society. Symbols, another characteristic, usually vary amongst different civilizations and only hold meaning for that society if it is widely accepted by others. Lastly, culture is dynamic, …show more content…
Five of these provinces have populations exceeding two million including the national capital which has a population of 2.7 million itself (Palka & Galgano, 2002). The estimated total population is around 23 million with 40% of the population living in rural areas and the other 60% living in urban areas (Library of Congress, 2008). Because of North Koreas difficult terrain, concentrations of population have widely been determined by ease of access, weather conditions, and arable land. Thus, the urban settlements of North Korea can be broken down into three general categories; western coastal and coastal plain cities, eastern coastal cities, and interior river valley cities. Interior river valley cities are not ideal for urban development and so they consist mostly of smaller towns and villages that are rectangular with smaller, single story structures and generally lack public utilities. Eastern coastal cities do experience urbanization, like the major city of Hamhung, which is North Korea’s second largest city with a population of nearly 850,000, however, these areas often experience large amounts of flooding that does considerable damage to structures (Palka & Galgano, 2002). Both western coastal and coastal plain cities are the most desirable of areas for urban development given the decreased possibility of flooding and the largest amounts of arable farm land. Because of these favorable conditions, the population tends to concentrate most heavily in these areas. The national capital P’yongyang is a western city that is reported to have numerous public parks, extreme cleanliness, wide streets, and a distinctive skyline and is the only city in North Korea that has an underground subway system (Palka & Galgano, 2002). The cities in North Korea do share some