Fifty years after the conflict that killed millions, the Korean peninsula theoretically remains at war.

China had warned that it would repay past debts to Koreans who had fought with them against Chiang Kaishek by defending North Korea against a U.S. invasion. But Washington had ignored the notice.

Two days after the war in Korea began, the U.S., worried that it would "lose" Korea like China to communists, took the matter to the UN Security Council.

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began. The three years of carnage that ensued would be known as the "Fatherland Liberation War."

North Korea's roots lie deep in Korean history.

To North Korea in 1950, the U.S.-backed Republic of Korea to its south was just the latest installment in Korea's long history of occupation by foreign powers.

Learn more about North Korea from these additional web resources.

People in Pyongyang are well fed, relatively speaking. They have decent housing and access to good education and so forth. Most of the rest of the country is not like that.

Photos essay of North Korea

Say what you will about North Korea, it sure knows how to put on a show. In the world's last remaining hardline communist state, "mass games" are the ultimate collective art form.

(September 11, 2003) This documentary tells the story of two teenage girls and their families as the girls prepare to participate in North Korea's Mass Games, an intricately choreographed display celebrating North Korea's statehood and revolutionary zeal in one of the last surviving Communist showcase pageants.

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