North Korean Archaeology and Archaeological Interpretation in the Twentieth Century

Authors

• Gabrielle E. Stoddard, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

2026

Document Type

Article

Citation

Nebraska Anthropologist (2026)

Anthropology Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

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Comments

Copyright 2026, Gabrielle E. Stoddard. Used by permission

Abstract

This paper examines how political unrest in North Korea during the twentieth century affected Korean Archaeology. During the occupation of the Korean peninsula by the Empire of Japan during 1910–1945, Japanese scholars embarked on the study of archaeology in Korea. Japanese archaeologists used Korean archaeological data and materials to push a colonial viewpoint that Korea was a weak state that could not advance without oversight from a conquering nation. After Korea was liberated by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1945, it was divided into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North) and the Republic of Korea (South). North Korean dictators and politicians sought to erase and rewrite the Japanese colonial point of view. North Korea’s first dictator, Kim Il Sung, used North Korea’s fragile economic state to manipulate politics and put himself into a position of overwhelming power. He created Juche ideology, a term that roughly translates to “self-reliance,” to isolate North Korean civilians politically and economically from the rest of the world (due to this ideology, North Korea is often called a “Hermit State or Kingdom.” As Juche ideology was growing and evolving, Kim Il Sung used the newly established field of archaeology to further support his political agenda. Kim handpicked a number of archaeologists whose research aligned with his principles and openly supported their research. When he felt their research or political stance no longer synchronized with his ideals, he purged them from their positions and subsequently erased them from North Korean academia and history. North Korean archaeology became a tool used to support the idea of a nationalistic Korean origin. As a result, much of the archaeological research conducted in North Korea, and some from South Korea, has been made inaccessible to the rest of the world.