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Comparison of the Understanding of Old Joseon in current History Textbooks of South Korea and North Korea

WonChin Cho 1

1세종대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The understanding of Old Joseon in history textbooks of South Korea and North Korea shows commonalities in the foundation, development, and the structure centered around the culture of eight articles on the violation of bans. In quantity, North Korean textbooks deal with Old Joseon much in detail compared to South Korean textbooks and especially with the foundation, the war between Old Joseon and Han, and cultural heritage, etc. in detail, giving much weight to them. Concerning the detailed period and area of the foundation, there are big differences found. North Korean textbooks state that after Tangun founded Old Joseon in the Pyongyang area in the 30th century B.C., he took the entire regions of Northeast China and the Korean peninsula as its domains and that Old Joseon collapsed as Wanggeom-seong, Busudo in the Liaodong region in 108 B.C. was fallen. Meanwhile, South Korean textbooks do not usually write the concrete time and area of foundation and the location of the capital, looking at the northern area of the Korean peninsula in the Daling River basin or Liaodong region as an area related to the basic Old Joseon culture. It seems that there is this difference because North Korean textbooks were written based on Reference for Teaching the History of Joseon. This states that Old Joseon is the country founded first in the world, Pyongyang is a capital with a history of 5,000 years and that students should be able to explain the representative struggle against an aggression by each dynasty. If the scholars of the two countries overcome the differences in their understanding through joint research with a long-term plan, they can overcome the different views on history.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.