Asia · Eastern Asia
How to draw North Korea from memory
North Korea is a single continuous landmass, roughly as wide as it is tall. Lock that proportion in before you worry about any individual stretch of border. Its border sits in the middle of the difficulty range — enough straight sections to anchor you, enough detail to punish a careless stroke.
- Difficulty
- medium
- Population
- 25.7 m
- Code
- PRK
Draw North Korea
Practice · draw from memory
North Korea
A four-step strategy for North Korea
- 01
Start by fixing the overall footprint. North Korea is close to square overall, so a lopsided sketch loses points fast.
- 02
Anchor one unmistakable feature — the straightest border section or the sharpest cape — and draw outward from it in a single continuous stroke.
- 03
Close the loop back to where you started. An open shape gets filled unpredictably and drags your score down.
- 04
Submit, read the nine-sector grid, and redraw immediately. The sector readout names the region you under-drew, and a second attempt typically gains 10–20 points.
Top scores for North Korea
Nobody has submitted a score for North Korea yet. Draw it above and you are first on this board.
Full leaderboard →Quick facts
- Continent
- Asia
- Subregion
- Eastern Asia
- Outline pieces
- 1
- Detail score
- 3.44
Three things that go wrong when people sketch North Korea
Each one is measured off the outline the game scores, not copied from a reference atlas: the proportions, the straight sections and the way the shape breaks into pieces are all properties of the coordinates your stroke gets compared against.
Not one straight edge to anchor the shape
The longest unbroken run in the whole outline is under 8% of the perimeter, and the coast folds back 1.51× on the smooth ring that would wrap it. Choose two deep inlets and one sharp promontory as anchors, and let everything between them stay approximate.
It narrows sharply toward the north
The outline is 2.4× wider at the bottom of the shape than at the top, so the broad part belongs in the south. Most failed sketches here put the wide section at the wrong end.
North Korea is close to square
Width against height comes out at 0.92 to 1, so the shape neither runs away sideways nor stretches vertically. Set that box first: with a near-square country almost every lost point comes from the coast detail inside it, not the footprint.
Answer key: the real shape of North Korea
- Box on the canvas
- 402 × 440 units
- Width to height
- 0.92 : 1
- Separate landmasses
- 1
- Longest straight run
- Nothing over 8% of the perimeter
- Coast against silhouette
- 1.51× the wrapping outline
Open it after you have drawn North Korea at least once. Seeing the shape first replaces the recall the score is meant to measure with tracing, and tracing always scores higher than remembering.
Why North Korea is scored this way
Country Drawing does not compare your sketch to a picture of North Korea. It scales and centres both your stroke and the real border into the same box, fills them, and measures how much of the two shapes overlap relative to their combined area. That means you are never punished for drawing North Korea small, off to one side, or rotated slightly — only for getting the shape itself wrong. The nine-sector grid then splits the real border into a 3×3 mesh and reports coverage per cell, which is how it can tell you that you lost the whole eastern edge rather than just handing you a number.
North Korea by the numbers
North Korea covers 120,538 km², which makes it the 97th largest of 190 countries in the game and the 28th largest in Asia. The capital is Pyongyang at about 40°N, 127°E, and it sits in Eastern Asia. It touches China, South Korea and Russia, and 100% of its area sits in one main landmass. The rest of the perimeter is water.
Next to North Korea: its land neighbours
Size is what the outline has to fill, so comparing the countries that share this border side by side is the fastest way to get the proportions into your head before you draw.
| Country | Area | Population | Capital | Pieces | vs North Korea |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Koreathis page | 120,538 km² | 25.7 m | Pyongyang | 1 | — |
 China | 9,706,961 km² | 1.40 bn | Beijing | 1 | 81× |
 South Korea | 100,210 km² | 51.7 m | Seoul | 1 | 0.83× |
 Russia | 17,098,242 km² | 144.4 m | Moscow | 1 | 142× |
Draw these next
Countries near North Korea share border conventions and coastline styles, which makes them the most useful follow-up practice.
Working through one country at a time is slow. Take the blank map of asia and label the whole region from memory — it shows you which neighbours you have never actually seen.
North Korea drawing questions
How big is North Korea?
North Korea covers 120,538 km², ranking 97th of 190 countries here by land area and 28th in Asia. Small enough to lie inside a square roughly 347.2 km on a side.
What is the capital of North Korea?
The capital is Pyongyang at about 40°N, 127°E. The game scores the shape of the border rather than the position of any city, so the capital and its coordinates are here to help you place North Korea on a blank map.
Is North Korea hard to draw?
It is rated medium, and carries more outline detail than 65% of the 190 borders in this game. The shape has to be placed as 1 landmass, with no straight edge longer than 8% of the perimeter to anchor it.
Which countries border North Korea?
North Korea shares a land border with China, South Korea and Russia. The remaining perimeter is coast, which is the part that usually costs points.