North Korea Trivia
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47 free North Korea trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This North Korea trivia quiz covers the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the 38th parallel to the Ryugyong Hotel. It opens with the geography: the two rivers that form the Chinese border, the sacred volcano at the country's highest point, the share of land that is mountain, Pyongyang's winter temperatures and the Taedong River. It then walks through the history in well-established facts: the 1948 founding, the June 1950 invasion, the July 1953 armistice that never became a peace treaty, the 1956 purge, the 1990s famine, the succession from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un, and the December 2023 announcement abandoning reunification. The second half looks at how the country works and what it is known for: Juche and Songun, the Songbun class system, the abolition of taxes in 1974, the won, the Kwangmyong intranet, the fourth-largest army in the world, the Arirang Mass Games and the 114,000-seat Rungrado stadium, the Mansudae art factory, the opera Sea of Blood, the Chollima football team that beat Italy in 1966, Dennis Rodman's basketball trips, and the landmarks of Pyongyang from the Juche Tower to the tallest unoccupied building on Earth. Questions range from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia articles on North Korea and Pyongyang. If you want the other half of the peninsula, try our South Korea trivia quiz.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What do the initials DPRK stand for?
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the state proclaimed in Pyongyang on 9 September 1948; inside the country the name is usually shortened to 'the Republic'.
Q 02Which two rivers form North Korea's northern border with China and Russia?
The Yalu (Amnok) and the Tumen
The Yalu (Amnok) and the Tumen form the border with China, and the Tumen's last 17 km form the short border with Russia; the Yalu, about 790 km long, is Korea's longest river.
Q 03What is the highest point in North Korea?
Paektu Mountain
Paektu Mountain, a volcano on the Chinese border, rises 2,744 metres; no peak in South Korea reaches 2,000 metres, so every Korean summit above that height is in the North.
Q 04Roughly what proportion of North Korea's land is mountains and uplands?
About 80 percent
About 80 percent of North Korea is mountains and uplands, which is why early European visitors said the country looked like 'a sea in a heavy gale'.
Q 05On which river does Pyongyang stand?
The Taedong
Pyongyang stands on the Taedong River, about 109 km upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea; the city had 3.26 million people at the 2008 census.
Q 06Along which line of latitude was Korea divided into Soviet and American occupation zones in 1945?
The 38th parallel
The 38th parallel split Korea into a Soviet zone in the north and an American zone in the south in August 1945; the DPRK was proclaimed on 9 September 1948 with Kim Il Sung as premier.
Q 07On what date did North Korea invade the South, starting the Korean War?
25 June 1950
North Korea invaded the South on 25 June 1950; the UN Security Council could authorise a response only because the Soviet Union was boycotting it over China's seat.
Q 08How did the Korean War end on 27 July 1953?
With an armistice but no peace treaty
About 3 million people died, and an estimated 12-15% of North Korea's population was killed, with almost every substantial building destroyed.
Q 09Which Soviet leader's de-Stalinisation policies did Kim Il Sung denounce as 'revisionist'?
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation after 1956 was branded 'revisionist' by Kim Il Sung, who that year purged the pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese factions in the August Faction Incident.
Q 10What is the name of Kim Il Sung's philosophy of self-reliance that became North Korea's state ideology?
Juche
It was first sold as a 'creative application' of Marxism-Leninism but had replaced it entirely by the 1970s; the 170-metre Juche Tower in Pyongyang celebrates it.
Q 11What was the 'military first' policy introduced by Kim Jong Il called?
Songun
Songun, 'military first', was Kim Jong Il's policy of putting the Korean People's Army ahead of every other state priority; it was written into the constitution in 2009.
Q 12How long a national mourning period did Kim Jong Il declare after his father's death in 1994?
Three years
Kim Jong Il declared three years of mourning after Kim Il Sung died in July 1994, only taking the title of General Secretary in October 1997; the floods and famine of the mid-1990s fell in between.
Q 13What name did North Korea give to the famine of the mid-1990s?
The Arduous March
Q 21In which year was the payment of taxes officially abolished in North Korea?
1974
Taxes were formally abolished on 1 April 1974, a date North Korea marks as Tax Abolition Day; housing and food are heavily subsidised, though informal jangmadang markets have supplied much of daily life since the 1990s famine.
Q 22What is North Korea's currency?
The won
The North Korean won, divided into 100 chon, is the currency; a November 2009 revaluation that knocked two zeros off banknotes and restricted markets and foreign currency triggered inflation and rare protests.
Q 23As of 2023, roughly what share of North Korea's imports came from China?
About 97%
About 97% of North Korea's imports in 2023 came from China, which has been its dominant trading partner since Soviet aid ended in the early 1990s.
North Korea called the famine the 'Arduous March', borrowing the name of Kim Il Sung's 1938–39 guerrilla retreat in Manchuria; the state accepted UN food aid in 1996.
Q 14In which year did North Korea announce it had conducted its first nuclear weapons test?
2006
North Korea announced its first nuclear test on 9 October 2006, after abandoning the 1994 Agreed Framework; tensions rose again in 2010 with the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan.
Q 15On what date did Kim Jong Il die, leading to Kim Jong Un's succession?
17 December 2011
Kim Jong Il died on 17 December 2011, reportedly of a heart attack aboard his train; his youngest son Kim Jong Un succeeded him and held summits with the US and South Korea in 2018.
Q 16What did Kim Jong Un announce on 30 December 2023?
That unification with South Korea was no longer possible
At a party plenum ending 30 December 2023, Kim Jong Un declared that unification with South Korea was no longer possible and called the South a hostile state; in January 2024 Pyongyang demolished its Arch of Reunification.
Q 17Which organisation is the sole ruling political force in North Korea?
The Workers' Party
The Workers' Party of Korea, formed in 1949 by merging the northern and southern workers' parties, has ruled since the state's founding; its newspaper is Rodong Sinmun.
Q 18What is the name of North Korea's highest state organ, its nominal legislature?
Supreme People's Assembly
The Supreme People's Assembly, a 687-seat unicameral body, is the nominal legislature; its Standing Committee exercises most of its powers between sessions and alone may interpret the constitution.
Q 19Kim Il Sung's birthday, 15 April, is a public holiday known as what?
The Day of the Sun
15 April is the Day of the Sun, so named in 1997 for Kim Il Sung; Kim Jong Il's birthday, 16 February, is the Day of the Shining Star.
Q 20What is Songbun?
A class system based on assessed loyalty
Songbun is a hereditary class system based on assessed loyalty; Kim Il Sung said in 1958 that the loyal 'core class' was 25% of the population, the 'wavering class' 55% and the 'hostile class' 20%.
Q 24What is the name of North Korea's walled-garden national intranet?
Kwangmyong
Kwangmyong, run by the Korea Computer Center, is the national intranet carrying state media, message boards and e-mail; access to the real internet is limited to a small elite.
Q 25North Korea became the tenth spacefaring nation with which December 2012 launch?
Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2
Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2, lofted by an Unha-3 rocket on 12 December 2012, reached orbit after four failed attempts, though the satellite was believed to be tumbling; North Korea had joined the Outer Space Treaty in 2009.
Q 26Which Guinness-recognised Pyongyang event, the world's biggest choreographic show, involves some 100,000 performers?
The Arirang Mass Games
The Arirang Mass Games, staged in Pyongyang's Rungrado 1st of May Stadium from 2002, earned a Guinness record for the largest gymnastic display, with around 100,000 performers.
Q 27Which team did North Korea famously beat 1-0 at the 1966 World Cup?
Italy
Pak Doo-ik's goal beat Italy 1-0 at Middlesbrough in 1966, sending North Korea into a quarter-final they lost 5-3 to Portugal after leading 3-0.
Q 28What is the nickname of North Korea's national football team?
Chollima
Chollima is a mythical winged horse; the DPR Korea League's games are often televised inside the country.
Q 29Which former NBA star visited North Korea in 2013 to help train its basketball team after befriending Kim Jong Un?
Dennis Rodman
Dennis Rodman first visited Pyongyang in February 2013 with the Harlem Globetrotters for a Vice documentary, struck up a friendship with Kim Jong Un and returned later that year to coach North Korean players.
Q 30Which North Korean studio built Senegal's 49-metre African Renaissance Monument, unveiled in 2010?
Mansudae Art Studio
Mansudae Art Studio, founded in 1959 and employing some 4,000 people, built the 49-metre bronze African Renaissance Monument in Dakar through its Mansudae Overseas Projects arm; it was unveiled in April 2010.