Democratic People's Republic of Korea

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Founded on September 9, 1948, it borders China and Russia to the north, South Korea to the south, and is bounded by the Yellow Sea to the west and the Sea of Japan to the east. Pyongyang is its capital and largest city. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Korea was divided, leading to the formation of the Soviet-aligned DPRK in the north and the Western-aligned Republic of Korea in the south in 1948. The Korean War began with North Korea's invasion of South Korea in 1950, ending in a 1953 ceasefire.