So should we always say USA? US, by your conventions, is wrong as well (never mind the now even worse America!). Hope you never say China when really you should say the People's Republic of China!

I can't tell if you're just trolling or actually care. Either way it's fairly dickish behavior that's totally unnecessary and doesn't advance the discussion.

Sometimes, but if that's a concern, they'll often use it the first time, mention the actual name is the DPRK, and then go from there.

Calling someone by their chosen name is one of the most human things you can do. Dale Carnegie and all that. The United State's dehumanization of the citizens of the DRPK begins with calling them by the name we prefer rather than the name they've chosen for themselves.

Eh, I don't think it needs that much over-explanation. We also commonly call the ROK "South Korea", and the ROC "Taiwan". They're both allies, but we still typically don't use their actual names in anything but formal settings. Going back to the Cold War, we used geographical terms for both East Germany and West Germany, which weren't in either of their names. I don't think this was out of a desire to dehumanize Germans, but rather because referring to a divided country as if it were not divided, using their official names "Federal Republic of Germany" and "German Democratic Republic" (which both claimed to be The Real Germany), is unwieldy bureaucratese.

(It's also not U.S.- or English-specific; you do the same thing in all these cases in Danish. Except for formal documents, it's Nordkorea and Sydkorea, not Den Demokratiske Folkerepublik Korea / DDFK or Republikken Korea / RK.)

We don't have imperialist intentions with any of those countries, nor do we consider them enemies. The ROK and the DRPK are both shorter than North/South Korea.

Anyway, words are hard.

Meh. We call the Russian Federation "Russia", the French Republic "France", the Kingdom of Morocco "Morocco", and the "Republic of Korea" South Korea. It's hardly unique, and no one else seems to mind.

North Korea's citizens have never been given a choice about this or any matter. As for me, "Democratic" and "People" in the regime's name for the country is a travesty and I will never use it. Out of respect for the millions of lives the Kim family have ruined during their decades of tyranny and mismanagement.

EDIT: Also, we call it "Nordkorea" in Sweden. Take that, Kim!

If the worst thing that happens to the people of North Korea is that we call their country "North Korea" instead of "DPRK", I think they'll be fine. (Obviously, that's not the worst thing that happens to people there.)

The nation is neither democratic, nor is it for "the people", nor is it a republic - but instead a totalitarian dictatorship run for the convenience of one man and his favored associates. But it is Korean. One out of four isn't too bad, I guess.