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Seoul (), officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities.Thomas Brinkhoff, www.citypopulation.de; South Korea, The registered population of the South Korean provinces and urban municipalities Registered population 2007-12-31. Retrieved on 2008-12-31. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the Incheon metropolis and most of Gyeonggi province, has 24.5 million inhabitants,????:??? ?? ?? ?? and is the world's second largest metropolitan area.R.L. Forstall, R.P. Greene, and J.B. Pick, "Which are the largest? Why published populations for major world urban areas vary so greatly", City Futures Conference, (University of Illinois at Chicago, July 2004) Table 5 (p.34) Almost half of South Korea's population live in the Seoul National Capital Area, and nearly a quarter in Seoul itself, making it the country's foremost economic, political, and cultural center. It is an important destination for immigrants to South Korea, with a rapidly growing international population of over 255,000.http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/08/117_50907.html

Seoul is located on the Han River in the center of the Korean Peninsula, and historically was settled in 18 B.C. when Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, established its capital in what is now south-east Seoul. The city then became the capital of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty and the Korean Empire. As the center of Korean history over the past millennia, the Seoul National Capital Area is home to four UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Changdeokgung, Hwaseong Fortress, Jongmyo Shrine and the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty.

Seoul's influence in business, international trade, politics, technology, education and entertainment all contribute to its role as a prominent global city.http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4509&page=1 It is considered to be an Alpha World City, ranking 9th in the 2008 Global Cities Index. Seoul is the iconic city of the Miracle on the Han River and hosted landmark international events such as the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 2002 FIFA World Cup and will be the host city of the November 2010 G-20 Summit. It is one of the world's top ten financial and commercial centers,http://www.citymayors.com/economics/financial-cities.html home to some of the world's largest conglomeratesSee List of companies by revenue. such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai-Kia. Seoul was Asia's most expensive city to live in 2007, and the third most expensive city worldwide.See List of most expensive cities for expatriate employees. With a GDP per capita of $31,095 in 2007, Seoul has a living standard comparable to France and Italy.http://www.mt.co.kr/view/mtview.php?type=1&no=2009072818220114676&outlink=1World Economic Outlook Database-April 2009, International Monetary Fund. Implied PPP conversion rate(2007). Accessed on April 22, 2009.World Economic Outlook Database-April 2009, International Monetary Fund. GDP(PPP) per capita(2007). Accessed on April 22, 2009. In 2008, Seoul was named the world's sixth most economically powerful city by Forbes.com, ahead of Paris and Los Angeles.http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/15/economic-growth-gdp-biz-cx_jz_0715powercities_slide_7.html?thisSpeed=15000

Seoul is the 2010 World Design Capital and has one of the world's most technologically advanced infrastructures.http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/tech-capitals-of-the-world/2007/06/16/1181414598292.html It is ranked first on the Digital Opportunity Index,http://english.seoul.go.kr/gtk/about/fact.php and its Digital Media City is the world's first complex for high-tech technologies, a test-bed for futuristic IT and multimedia applications, as well as home to the 133-floors, 640m supertall DMC Landmark Building, slated to be the world's second tallest building by 2015.http://dmc.seoul.go.kr/english/jsp/about/overview.jsp Seoul is the only city in the world featuring DMB, a digital mobile TV technology and WiBro, a wireless high-speed mobile internet service, as well as the world's fastest, most penetrated 100Mbps fibre-optic broadband network, which is being upgraded to 1Gbps by 2012.http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/south-koreans-could-see-1gbps-web-connections-by-2012/ Seoul Station houses the 350 km/h KTX high-speed rail and the Seoul Subway is the third largest in the world, with over 2 billion passengers every year.See Metro systems by annual passenger rides. Seoul is connected to Incheon International Airport via AREX, which is rated as the world's best airport by ACI since 2005.

South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK) (, ) and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest metropolitan city in the worldR.L. Forstall, R.P. Greene, and J.B. Pick, "Which are the largest? Why published populations for major world urban areas vary so greatly", City Futures Conference, (University of Illinois at Chicago, July 2004) - Table 5 (p.34) and a major global city.http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4509&page=1 South Korea lies in a temperate climate region with a predominantly mountainous terrain. Its territory covers a total area of 100,032 square kilometers and has a population of over 48 million, making it the third most densely populated (significantly sized) country in the world (after Bangladesh and Taiwan).Population density calculated using surface area and population figures from [http://www.korea.net/korea/kor_loca.asp?code=L03].

Archaeological findings show that the Korean Peninsula was occupied as early as the Lower Paleolithic period.Ancient civilizationshttp://www.opm.go.kr/warp/webapp/content/view?meta_id=english&id=35 Korean history begins with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by Dan-gun. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Silla 668 AD, Korea went through the Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910, when Korea was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy. A war between the two Koreas ended in an uneasy cease-fire. After the war and a period of military rule, the South Korean economy grew significantly and the country was transformed into a major economyhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/322280/South-Korea/34997/Economic-and-social-developments and a full democracy.

South Korea is a presidential republic consisting of 16 administrative divisions and is a developed country with a high standard of living. It has the fourth largest economy in Asia and the 15th largest in the world. The economy is export-driven, with production focusing on electronics, automobiles, ships, machinery, petrochemicals and robotics. South Korea is a member of the United Nations, WTO, OECD and G-20 major economies. It is also a founding member of APEC and the East Asia Summit, and a major non-NATO ally of the United States.

The Korean War is a war between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea, ROK) that started on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953. The Korean peninsula was politically divided as a legacy of the geopolitics of defeating the Japanese Empire on the peninsula in 1945. Soviet Union forces fighting the Japanese advanced south to the 38th Parallel, which later became the political border between the two Koreas. Despite talks in the months preceding open warfare, continual cross-border skirmishes and raids at the 38th Parallel, and the political frustration of failed all-Korea elections in 1948, escalated to warfare. The reunification negotiations ceased when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950.

The United States and the United Nations intervened on the side of the South. After a rapid UN counteroffensive that repelled North Koreans past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, the People's Republic of China (PRC) came to the aid of the North. With the PRC's entry into the conflict, the fighting eventually ceased with an armistice that restored the original border between the Koreas at the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone, a 2.5 mile wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the armistice on 27 May 2009, thus returning to a de facto state of war.

During the war, both North and South Korea were sponsored by external powers, thus facilitating the war's metamorphosis from a simple civil war to a proxy war between powers involved in the larger Cold War.

From a military science perspective, the Korean War combined strategies and tactics of World War I and World War II ? swift infantry attacks followed by air bombing raids. The initial mobile campaign transitioned to trench warfare, lasting from January 1951 until the 1953 border stalemate and armistice.

North Korea, officially the 'Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK') (Hangul: ???????????, Chos?n Minjuju?i Inmin Konghwaguk), is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea. The Amnok River and the Tumen River form the border between North Korea and Peoples Republic of China. A section of the Tumen River in the extreme north-east is the border with Russia.

The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was annexed by Japan following the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. It was divided into Soviet and American occupied zones in 1945, following the end of World War II. North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations?supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones. Both North and South Korea claimed sovereignty over the peninsula as a whole, which led to the Korean War of 1950. A 1953 armistice ended the fighting; however, the two countries are officially still at war with each other, as a peace treaty was never signed. Both states were accepted into the United Nations in 1991. On May 26, 2009, North Korea unilaterally withdrew from the armistice.

North Korea is a single-party state under a united front led by the Korean Workers' Party.

The country's government styles itself as following the Juche ideology of self-reliance, developed by Kim Il-sung, the country's former leader. Juche became the official state ideology when the country adopted a new constitution in 1972, though Kim Il-sung had been using it to form policy since at least as early as 1955. Officially a socialist republic, North Korea is considered by many in the outside world to be a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship.

North Korea ranked in last place (167) The current leader is Kim Jong-il, son of the late Eternal President Kim Il-sung.

Pyongyang () is the capital of North Korea, located on the Taedong River. According to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,388.United Nations Statistics Division; Preliminary results of the 2008 Census of Population of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea conducted on 1-15 October 2008 (pdf-file) Retrieved on 2009-03-01.

The city was split from the South P'y?ngan province in 1946. It is administered as a directly-governed city (chikhalsi), on the same level as provincial governments, not a special city (teukbyeolsi) as Seoul is in South Korea. Some sources, mostly older and South Korean, refer to P'y?ngyang as a special city.