the outside world has been walled off. American pop music is illegal here and you can get executed for watching soap operas. Thi
s is not a make-believe world in a science fiction novel. It's a 46,000 square mile nation hanging off the east coast of China. It is one of the poorest nations in the world and it is armed with nuclear weapons. It is North Korea. Immediately to the south lies a nation with one of the world's richest economies. About one-third of all phones and TVs are made here. The people of this nation are among the world's most educated. Unemployment is low, job security is high, and workers in this nation enjoy the highest salaries in Asia. It is South Korea. The people of this nation share origins with their northern neighbor, but they have since grown far apart. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (known to Westerners as North Korea) was founded in 1945 after World War II. Their neighbor at the end of the Korean Peninsula, South Korea or the Republic of Korea, was established at the same time. These two nations have an unusual history. For one thing, they have technically been at war since 1950. Though they were born at the same time, these two countries had different parents. The United States supported South Korea in its infancy. China and the Soviet Union supported North Korea. The U.S. and the Soviet Union may have ended World War II as allies, but they had different ways of organizing their societies. The U.S. is a capitalist country. That means that some people are rich and some people are poor. Resources are distributed unevenly. Business are owned by private entities. The Soviet Union claimed to have a communist system. That means that everybody supposedly gets the same. Resources are distributed more evenly. Business are owned in "common" by the government. These two superpower nations raised North and South Korea in their own images. The two Koreas went to war in 1950. The North attacked and took over much of South Korea. But the United States jumped in and pushed the North Koreans back to the Chinese border. Then China got involved and pushed the Americans and South Koreans back. The nations agreed to a ceasefire. Millions of people were dead and the living returned to their original boundaries. The war never officially ended, though combat has ceased for the most part. After the war, South Korea was one of the poorest nations in the world. In 1960 the average citizen made $79 a year. The country did not have a lot of natural resources to sell, but they did have many hardworking people. During the 1960s, the country began manufacturing labor-intensive products. Selling these products to people in other nations made South Korea rich. They now have one of the largest and most thriving economies in the world. As of 2012, the average South Korean citizen makes around $32,020 a year. The economy of North Korea is dramatically different. Since it's birth in the 1940s, North Korea has been one of the most secluded countries in the world. They promote an idea of self-reliance that they call Juche. Under this idea, they do little to no trading with other nations. Up until the 1980s, they received large cash infusi
The federal budget is one of the most important policy instruments of our government. Through their budget decisions, our elected leaders fulfill their constitutional responsibilities, signal their policy priorities, and manage the federal purse.
