40 maps that explain North Korea

An overview of North Korea’s military capabilities

With one of the world’s largest conventional military forces, North Korea is often perceived as a security threat. This multimedia backgrounder by CFR breaks down North Korea’s military capabilities. North Korea has the world’s...

North Korea country profile

North Korea has often been described as one of the world’s most secretive societies. Learn the basics about the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea with this breakdown from the BBC. North Korea emerged in 1948, following the end of the Second World War. Today, it remains one of the few countries still (nominally) under communist rule. Key facts unpack the realities of everyday life inside North Korea.

North Korea, in nine infographics

In recent decades, North Korea has spent nearly a third of its annual Gross Domestic Product on military spending, although data is not always forthcoming. This spending has funded major nuclear and missile projects as a means to deter attacks from...

The North Korean nuclear threat, explained

What would happen if North Korea gets a working ICBM Watch this six-minute video by Vox for an explanation of the North Korean nuclear threat. The Soviet Union first gave nuclear technology to North Korea in the 1950s, when they helped their ally...

What missiles does North Korea have?

In recent years, North Korea has tested a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as both submarine-launched missiles and hypersonic missiles, which can fly at low altitude (to escape radar detection) and at several times the speed of sound. Dive into this visualization by the BBC to break down what missiles North Korea currently has.

A timeline of Russia-North Korea relations

North Korea and Russia have often had aligned interests, yet their relationship has experienced many highs and lows. Al Jazeera’s explainer outlines the key events defining Russia-North Korea relations. Russia and North Korea were allies during...

An interactive visualization tracking 25 years of US-North Korea nuclear negotiations

From 1990 to 2017, the United States and North Korea engaged in a complex series of bilateral and multilateral negotiations. This interactive page, compiled by CSIS Beyond Parallel, displays a record of provocations and negotiations between the two...

South Korea is separated from North Korea by a demilitarized zone

There’s a lot of symbolism going on in the South Korean flag: a red-and-blue yin-yang represents the harmony created by opposing forces, and the white background represents peace and purity. The four black trigrams symbolize the four elements. The CIA World Factbook has more info on this country of 52 million, including where it ranks globally on obesity rates, energy consumption, and more.

Imagining the reunification of the Koreas

The idea of reunifying North and South Korea has been a geopolitical dream for years, though one that feels perpetually out of reach. That hasn’t kept some from imagining it, though. Reddit user Aofen created a set of maps that postulate what effect a hypothetical reunification would have on population numbers, birth rates, median income, political affiliation, and more.

Inside the architecture of Pyongyang's Kim dynasty

Since the bombings during the Korean War wiped out much of Pyongyang in the 1950s, three leaders of the Kim dynasty of North Korea have remade the ancient capital from the bottom-up, designing workers monuments, vast streets, and collectivized living spaces. Take a look inside the reclusive city with this architectural analysis accompanied by photographs.

See South Korea's nighttime light usage, far surpassing North Korea's

You can tell a lot about a place by looking at satellite imagery of the earth at night. Economists use such images to study poverty and inequality, especially about secretive countries where it can be difficult to get information any other way. An image from NASA’s Earth Observatory shows the difference in electrification between North and South Korea (and the lights illuminating the DMZ are visible from space).

Is North Korea fighting a food crisis?

North Korea is facing a food crisis placing it on the brink of famine. Read (or watch) Al Jazeera’s detailed take on the food crisis unfolding in North Korea. Since the 1950s, the country has relied on a collective agriculture system. But...

Common mistakes we make about the world map

Maps have long loosely approximated what the world actually looks like. Here's a few common errors that persist due to outdated conceptions of the world.

37 maps that explain the American Civil War

This collection of 37 maps tells the story of the American Civil War as well as any historical account. See how and where the war began and why, and where the major battles were fought. Discover how the North achieved victory and the many ways the war changed America forever.

Mapping NATO's 32 countries across North America and Europe

See an updated map with the option to learn more about each country's membership and role in the alliance. The map shows the borders of its member countries with extra filters capable of locating its many civilian structures, nonmember partners, positions of missile sites, and more.

Explore a multimedia timeline of Communism’s global rise and collapse

This timeline from The Washington Post traces the spread of Communism—from revolutions and Cold War flashpoints to movements in China, Cuba, Korea, and Vietnam—using archival photos and key moments to chart the ideology’s dramatic ascent and worldwide decline.

Ukraine's contested Donbas region: a visual explainer

Russia's heavily industrialized eastern Donbas region has been largely controlled by Russian separatists since 2014. Here's everything you need to know on the key strategic region.

How K-pop conquered the world

How did Korean musical acts go from unpopular and at times maligned to filling arenas and creating one of the most viral music videos of all time? This 25-minute audio documentary from BBC World Service explains how social networks, plastic surgery, and government tax breaks helped turn K-pop into the multibillion-dollar global juggernaut we know today.

Everything you need to know about demography in 10 graphs

This 17-minute video explains the future of the world through demographic data points. Dr. Paul Morland has published three books on demography. In this talk, he shows how demography is a powerful lens to view global transformations. Included are...

Explore an interactive map of the unified theories of everything

This interactive concisely describes many highly complex theories ranging from quantum gravity and black holes to dark matter and energy. Supplementary resources, key questions, and possible solutions accompany each description. As of 2026, no developed theory provides an accepted explanation of all observed phenomena in the universe at all scales.

The world's most peaceful countries

Global Peace Index presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to date on trends in peace, including the most and least peaceful countries in the world.

The Middle East's cold war, explained

The Middle East is one of the most complex regions in the world, including a complicated web of conflicts and actors. Two countries, Saudi Arabia and Iran, have torn apart the region by supporting opposing sides in other countries and indirectly...

A ‘supernote,’ or nearly-perfect counterfeit $100 bill, was recently found in South Korea

These “supernotes” have even fooled US government officials. North Korea is widely believed to be behind the creation of these counterfeit banknotes.

See the most oddly gerrymandered districts in the US

Based on input from redistricting experts and political scientists, this resource identifies and ranks the most extreme congressional gerrymanders of the 2020s, examining how map design, cracking, and packing reduce competition and distort representation across states.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

A brief video explainer on the US 'One China' policy

Wondering what the "One China" policy means? This four-minute explainer video delves into which nations recognize Beijing as the seat of the Chinese government and which recognize Taiwan as such. Meanwhile, the United States of America views Beijing as the true government while maintaining relations with Taiwan, including selling them arms to protect themselves.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Explore the animals that populate the depths of the ocean, from fish and coral in the first few hundred feet, all the way down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

Neutron stars, the remains of some massive stars after they explode in a supernova, are the densest directly observable objects in the universe.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'