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An Analysis on the Contents Construction of Historical Atlas of Korea Published in North Korea

  • Journal of the Association of Korean Geographers
  • Abbr : JAKG
  • 2019, 8(3), pp.449-462
  • DOI : 10.25202/JAKG.8.3.8
  • Publisher : Association of Korean Geographers
  • Research Area : Social Science > Geography
  • Received : November 30, 2019
  • Accepted : December 13, 2019
  • Published : December 31, 2019

Saangkyun Yi 1,  Choi, Hee 2

1동북아역사재단
2디아스포라연구소

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study is to discover the recognition for North Korean side of history and territory which had been sharing the same history and culture prior to division of territory, by analysing North Korea’s Historical Atlas of Korea in the current circumstance in which Korean people’s history is in danger of being partly distorted or lost due to China’s Northeast Project about History. In particular, to analyse the characteristics of the atlas’s contents composition and find out the character ideology of North Korean regime that has fundamentally influenced the historical events and the process of map selection. As the result of the study, firstly, it finds that in the aspect of clear statement the purpose of creation for Historical Atlas of Korea is allegedly to install in North Korean peoples and soldiers ethnic pride and confidence, nationalism, and to help the nation’s history education, yet implicitly it is to justify the establishment of the North Korean regime and results in the reification of the Kim’s family. Secondly, in terms of the content composition maps of prehistoric era focus on the historical sites, old age maps the distinction between national territory, middle ages maps on the circumstances of war against exterior invasions, and modern maps on the events that won over the imperial vessels’ invasion from America and France alike. Then the later part of the atlas, from late 19th century to early 20th century, deals with the history of revolutionary struggles such as the peasant’s revolution, anti-Japanese wars and 3.1 revolution. Thirdly, North Korea places 1926 as the beginning of “contemporary” as Kim Il-Sung started Down-with-Imperialism Union, and constitutes that such revolutionary activities of Kim Il-Sung runs along with the establishment of North Korean government (1945). Fourthly, it foregrounds Pyeongyang as the foundation of Koreans, battleground for the exclusion of the outer forces, and the holy ground for revolution, while it doesn’t mention only one sentence about Seoul which was the capital for Joseon dynasty for 500 years. The Daehan Empire does not exist in the North Korean history. Even though the viewpoint and content between the South and the North varies largely, we need to make continual efforts to narrow the different gap between the South and the North in preparation for the era of unification.

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