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Reinterpreting Traditional History in North Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Yōng-ho Ch'oe
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Abstract

In reinterpreting traditional history according to the Marxist world view, the question of periodization is vitally important. This article examines the controversies surrounding the periodization and the nature of the new interpretation of traditional history in North Korea. One characteristic that stands out prominently in North Korean historiography is the nationalistic emphasis placed on the uniqueness and the superiority of the Korean civilization unaffected by any external influence. Also noteworthy is the attempt to reinterpret modern history largely in terms of glorifying the immediate forefathers of Kim Il-sŏng at the expense of historical objectivity.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , May 1981 , pp. 503 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1981

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References

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62 Yŏksa sajŏn 2: 78.

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68 Chosŏn t'ongsa (1958 ed.) 2: 15: Na-yŏng, Yi, Chosŏn minjok haebang t'ujaengsa (A history of the Korea people's struggle for liberation), (P'yōngyang, 1958), p. 28Google Scholar: Chosŏn kŭndae hyŏngmyŏng undong sa, pp. 16–17.

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74 Born in South Korea, Kim Sōk-hyōng was graduated from Keijō (Seoul) Imperial University and taught in Seoul before he moved to North Korea around 1948. Professor Peter H. Lee of the University of Hawaii, who was once a favorite student of his at Yangjōng High School in Seoul, remembers Kim as an unassuming and reticent man whose modesty earned him the nicknamepabo (idiot) among his students. However, Kim was an erudite and hard-working scholar, according to Lee.

75 YSKH 1966, no. 6, p. 2.

76 Kim Sŏk-hyŏng, Kim Hŭi-il, and Son Yŏng-jong, “Chŏn segyesa Chosŏn kwan'gye sŏsul ūi ŏmjung han ch'ago tŭl e taehayō” (On serious errors in the narrations related to Korea in World History), Kŭlloja, Sept. 20, 1963, no. 18(also in Nodong sinmun, Sept. 20, 1963). In 1959, North Korea proudly announced a joint project of North Korean and Russian historians to write a modern Korean history; see YSKH 1959, no. 1, pp. 90–92. But in 1961, Kim Sŏk-hyŏng severely criticized the preface to the Russian translation of Chosŏn t'ongsa for distorting Korean history; see YSKH 1961, no. 3.