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North Korea ETHNICITY, CULTURE, AND LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
In terms of ethnicity, the population of the Korean Peninsula
is one of the world's most homogeneous. Descended from migratory
groups who entered the Korean Peninsula from Siberia, Manchuria,
and Inner Asia several thousands of years ago, the Korean people
are distinguished from the neighboring populations of mainland
Asia and Japan in terms of ethnicity, culture, and language, even
though they share many cultural elements with these peoples.
Since the establishment of the Han Chinese colonies in the
northern Korean Peninsula 2,000 years ago, Koreans have been
under the cultural influence of China. During the period of
Japanese domination (1910-45), the colonial regime attempted to
force Koreans to adopt the Japanese language and culture. Neither
the long and pervasive Chinese influence nor the more coercive
and short-lived Japanese attempts to make Koreans loyal subjects
of the Japanese emperor, however, succeeded in eradicating their
ethnic, cultural, and linguistic distinctiveness. The desire of
the North Korean regime to preserve its version of Korean
culture, including many traditional aspects such as food, dress,
art, architecture, and folkways, is motivated in part by the
historical experience of cultural domination by both the Chinese
and the Japanese.
Chuch'e ideology asserts Korea's cultural
distinctiveness and creativity as well as the productive powers
of the working masses. The ways in which chuch'e rhetoric
is used shows a razor-thin distinction between revolutionary
themes of self-sufficient socialist construction and a virulent
ethnocentrism. In the eyes of North Korea's leaders, the
"occupation" of the southern half of the peninsula by "foreign
imperialists" lends special urgency to the issue of culturalethnic identity. Not only must the people of South Korea be
liberated from foreign imperialism, but also they must be given
the opportunity to participate in the creation of a new, but
still distinctively Korean, culture.
Data as of June 1993
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