50 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What do the initials DPRK stand for?
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Inside the country the name is usually shortened to 'the Republic', and North Koreans call the land Chosŏn rather than the South's Hanguk.
Q 02Which two rivers form North Korea's northern border with China and Russia?
The Yalu (Amnok) and the Tumen
The Amnok is also the country's longest river at 790 km; the southern border with South Korea runs through the DMZ.
Q 03What is the highest point in North Korea, a volcano considered sacred and woven into the Kim family cult?
Paektu Mountain
It rises 2,744 metres, and every peak on the Korean Peninsula above 2,000 metres is in the North.
Q 04Roughly what proportion of North Korea's land is mountains and uplands?
About 80 percent
Early European visitors said the country looked like 'a sea in a heavy gale' because of its successive ranges.
Q 05On which river does Pyongyang stand?
The Taedong
The city lies about 109 km upstream from the river's mouth on the Yellow Sea and 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 Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed in the North on 10 July 1948, with Kim Il Sung as premier.
Q 07On what date did North Korea invade the South, starting the Korean War?
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
In the 1956 August faction incident he purged the pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese factions and survived attempts by both powers to remove him.
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
The Korean People's Army has about 1.28 million active troops, the fourth-largest active force in the world.
Q 12How long a national mourning period did Kim Jong Il declare after his father's death in 1994?
Three years
Only afterwards did he formally announce himself as the new leader; the mid-1990s floods and famine followed.
Q 13According to Wikipedia, how many people died in the North Korean famine of the mid-1990s?
Between 240,000 and 420,000
The government accepted UN food aid in 1996; North Korean children who fled to China became known as Kotjebi.
Q 21In which year was the payment of taxes officially abolished in North Korea?
1974
Food and housing are heavily subsidised and education and healthcare are free, though most people rely on small jangmadang markets.
Q 22What is North Korea's currency?
The won
A 2009 revaluation that banned markets and foreign currency triggered inflation and rare public protests, and was reversed.
Q 23As of 2023, roughly what share of North Korea's imports came from China?
About 97%
China also took more than 74% of exports; iron ore and coal are two of the few sectors where the North outproduces the South, by about ten to one.
Q 14In which year did North Korea announce it had conducted its first nuclear weapons test?
2006
It had promised to halt nuclear development under the 1994 Agreed Framework; tensions rose again in 2010 with the sinking of the Cheonan.
Q 15On what date did Kim Jong Il die, leading to Kim Jong Un's succession?
17 December 2011
Kim Jong Un was his youngest son; a series of summits with the US and South Korea followed in 2018 before talks broke down.
Q 16What did Kim Jong Un announce on 30 December 2023?
That unification with South Korea was no longer possible
In 2024 the DPRK formally abandoned reunification efforts and sent troops to Russia to support its war in Ukraine.
Q 17Which organisation is the sole ruling political force in North Korea?
The Workers' Party
Its official ideology is Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, and its newspaper is Rodong Sinmun.
Q 18What is the name of North Korea's highest state organ, its nominal legislature?
Supreme People's Assembly
Its Standing Committee holds most of its powers while it is in recess and has the unique right to interpret the constitution.
Q 19Kim Il Sung's birthday, 15 April, is a public holiday known as what?
The Day of the Sun
Kim Jong Il's birthday is the Day of the Shining Star; both men are officially the 'eternal leaders of Korea'.
Q 20What is Songbun?
A 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
Maintained by the Korea Computer Center, it carries state media, chat, message boards and e-mail; real internet access is limited to a handful of elites and scientists.
Q 25North Korea became the tenth spacefaring nation with which December 2012 launch?
Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2
It followed four failed attempts and reached orbit but was believed to be crippled; the country joined the Outer Space Treaty in 2009.
Q 26How does North Korea's active-duty army rank in size worldwide?
Fourth largest
About 4.9% of the population is on active duty, and roughly one in every 25 citizens is an enlisted soldier.
Q 27Which Guinness-recognised Pyongyang event, the world's biggest choreographic show, involves some 100,000 performers?
The Arirang Mass Games
Another 40,000 participants form a giant animated card-flip screen in the background.
Q 28What is the capacity of Pyongyang's Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, the second largest in the world?
114,000
It hosts the Mass Games; the Pyongyang Marathon is a separate IAAF Bronze Label race open to foreign amateurs.
Q 29Which team did North Korea famously beat 1-0 at the 1966 World Cup?
Italy
They then lost 5-3 to Portugal in the quarter-final; at the 2010 World Cup the Chollima lost all three matches.
Q 30What 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.