Provinces of North Korea

Although the details of local administration have changed dramatically over time, the basic outline of the current three-tiered system was implemented under the reign of Gojong in 1895. A similar system also remains in use in South Korea.

Provinces (Korean: 도; Hancha: 道) are the highest-ranked administrative divisions in North Korea. Provinces have equal status to the special cities.

The populations listed for each province are from the 2008 North Korea Census. From this census, an additional 702,372 people are living in military camps.

North Korea historically claimed seven provinces on the territory controlled by South Korea. These provinces were based on the divisions of the Japanese era, but corresponded somewhat to the present South Korean provinces and the special cities partitioned out of them, owing to the alterations in the provincial division affected by South Korea being more conservative relatively to those affected by the north. People's committees for these claimed provinces were elected in 1950 during the Korean War, when much of South Korea was under the DPRK's control.

Since the late 1950s, North Korea had a government-in-exile for South Korean administrative divisions similar to its South Korean counterpart. These were initially composed of South Korean defectors to the North who survived the post-war purges of 1953-1960, but their descendants later took over gradually as the initial defectors died out; an analogous situation is the Taiwan delegation to the PRC National People's Congress, which was likewise initially composed of Taiwanese communists but later replaced with their descendants in Mainland China. These individuals, who were to assume office after South Korea's "liberation", also generally served in other offices within North Korea at various levels. Top offices, such as the WPK Secretary of Seoul (though not the chairman of the Seoul City People's Committee, which was reserved for a southerner or a descendant of southerners), were reserved for people born in North Korea. These titular officials have access to documents about the South Korean city, town or county they are supposedly responsible for, and are sent to training camps once a year where they are given lectures about the current situation in South Korea.^[2][3] The status of this government-in-exile after North Korea's abandonment of peaceful reunification is unknown; however, since the new policy does not exclude the possibility of reunification by armed force, these officials could still be appointed as military governors were South Korea to be conquered by the North (as they were expected to assume office this way even before the abandonment of peaceful reunification^[3]).

As part of leader Kim Jong Un's declaration that deemed peaceful unification unfeasible with South Korea, the North Korean constitution was amended in 2024 to redefine the Republic of Korea — now recognising its existence, but without establishing bilateral relations — as its 'primary enemy state' (적대국); relinquishing its claim to the said areas, but at the same time vowed to reclaim the South through "nuclear force". However, the full copy of its updated constitution, which may include exact articles or amendments related to territorial changes, has yet to be released for international audiences to further substantiate the North's recent actions.^[4][5][6][7]

• Administrative divisions of North Korea
• Provinces of South Korea
• Special cities of North Korea