Goryeo vs. North Korea: They Share the Same Name, “Korea”—So Why Did Their Political Systems Become So Different?

The name “Korea” traces its origins to Goryeo, a kingdom that developed a brilliant and sophisticated culture.

Interestingly, North Korea has also frequently used the name “Goryeo” in political contexts. The official name of the confederation plan once proposed by North Korea for Korean reunification was the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo.

So, how similar are medieval Goryeo and modern-day North Korea, despite sharing the same historical name? And more importantly, how different are they?

1. Openness vs. Isolation: An Open Gateway to the World vs. a Closed Curtain

① Goryeo: A Remarkably Open Society

Goryeo was an internationally connected kingdom, with Byeongnando serving as its major port for overseas trade. Merchants and travelers arrived from Song China, the Liao dynasty, Japan, and even the Arab and broader Islamic world.

Goryeo society was also relatively open to foreigners. Talented immigrants could become naturalized subjects, enter government service, and in some cases rise to high-ranking positions.

It was also during the Goryeo period that the name “Goryeo” (Koryŏ) became known to the outside world through international trade and contact, including interactions with Muslim merchants. The name eventually developed into the modern Western name “Korea.”

② North Korea: An Extremely Closed Society

North Korea is often described as a “Hermit Kingdom” because of its extreme isolation from the international community and its efforts to restrict outside influence in order to preserve the political system.

Under strict state control, not only is overseas travel by ordinary citizens heavily restricted, but movement within the country is also subject to significant controls. Access to foreign media and information is likewise tightly regulated.

2. Commerce and the Economy: Active Markets vs. Strict State Control

① Goryeo: A Flourishing Commercial Economy

Taejo Wang Geon (太祖 王建), the founder of the Goryeo dynasty, came from a powerful maritime merchant family whose wealth and influence were closely connected to trade along Korea’s rivers and coastal routes.

Perhaps partly because of these origins, the Goryeo dynasty regarded commerce as an important component of the national economy. When commercial activity declined, the government sometimes intervened to protect merchants and encourage trade.

Through relatively open economic policies, the state actively promoted commercial activity. In the capital, Gaegyeong, officially authorized marketplaces known as sijeon (市廛) flourished, while ordinary people participated extensively in the buying and selling of goods.

Goryeo also made repeated efforts to promote the circulation of currency. The government issued various forms of money, including Geonwon Jungbo (乾元重寶), Samhan Tongbo (三韓通寶), and silver bottle currency known as hwalgu (闊口), in an effort to facilitate trade and stimulate commercial activity.

② North Korea: Suppression and Control of Private Commerce

Under its socialist planned economy, North Korea has traditionally placed strict restrictions on private commercial activity. In principle, essential goods are supposed to be distributed through the state-run public distribution system, while private profit-making activities outside state control have often been classified as “anti-socialist” practices and subjected to punishment or regulation.

Nevertheless, informal markets known as jangmadang (장마당) emerged spontaneously as ordinary people sought ways to make a living, particularly amid the breakdown of the public distribution system in the 1990s. Although these markets have become an important part of everyday economic life, the state continues to regulate them and has periodically tightened restrictions or conducted crackdowns.

3. Political Power: Aristocratic Power-Sharing vs. Three-Generation Hereditary Rule

① Goryeo: An Aristocratic Balance of Power

Goryeo had a monarch, but political power was not concentrated entirely in the hands of the king. Powerful groups—including aristocratic families, military elites, and later the influential landed elite known as the gwonmun sejok (權門勢族)—possessed considerable political and economic power.

Royal authority was therefore not absolute, and major political decisions often required negotiation and cooperation among powerful elites. In the late Goryeo period, institutions such as the Dopyeonguisasa (都評議使司) served as important deliberative bodies where leading officials discussed major affairs of state and coordinated the interests of the ruling elite.

② North Korea: The Supreme Leader System

North Korea maintains a three-generation hereditary leadership system, with power passing from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Il and then to Kim Jong Un.

Political power is highly concentrated around the supreme leader, and the political system does not institutionally permit meaningful power-sharing or open opposition to the leadership.

4. Religion and Ideology: Religious Diversity vs. a Single Dominant State Ideology

① Goryeo: Cultural and Religious Diversity

Buddhism occupied a central place in Goryeo society and received strong state patronage, but it existed alongside a variety of other intellectual and religious traditions, including Confucianism, Daoism, and geomancy (pungsu-jiri, 風水地理).

This diversity was also reflected in major state-sponsored festivals such as the Palgwanhoe (八關會) and Yeondeunghoe (燃燈會). These celebrations combined Buddhist practices with indigenous traditions and brought together people from different backgrounds in large communal festivities.

Rather than being dominated by a single ideology, Goryeo developed a relatively pluralistic cultural landscape in which different beliefs and traditions coexisted and influenced one another.

② North Korea: Religious Repression and Ideological Control

In North Korea, genuine freedom of religion is severely restricted, while citizens are expected to follow Juche ideology and Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism as the state’s guiding ideology.

At the same time, the state has constructed an extensive cult of personality around the supreme leader and the Kim family. Through political rituals, propaganda, monuments, and ideological education, the official state ideology has taken on functions that some scholars have compared to those of a political religion.

4. Similarities Between the Joseon Dynasty and North Korea

Rather than simply adopting orthodox Marxism in its original form, North Korea developed Juche (主體思想) as a distinctive ideology shaped by Marxism-Leninism, Korean nationalism, and Korea’s historical and cultural traditions.

For this reason, certain parallels can be drawn between the Joseon dynasty and modern North Korea, particularly in the way a dominant state ideology was elevated to a position of exceptional authority while competing ideas were restricted or suppressed. However, the historical contexts and political systems of the two societies were fundamentally different.

(1) The Elevation of a Single Dominant Ideology and the Rejection of Dissent

① Joseon Dynasty: Neo-Confucianism as the Dominant State Ideology

The Joseon dynasty adopted Neo-Confucianism (性理學) as the central ideology of government and social order. Over time, particularly as Neo-Confucian orthodoxy became more firmly established, competing intellectual and religious traditions were often marginalized or restricted.

Individuals regarded as challenging Neo-Confucian orthodoxy or established scholarly authority could be condemned as samunnan-jeok (斯文亂賊)—literally, an “enemy of Confucian learning.” Depending on the political circumstances, such accusations could contribute to severe punishment, including exile and, in extreme cases, execution.

② North Korea: Ideological Control Centered on Juche

In North Korea, political ideas outside the officially sanctioned framework of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism and Juche ideology are not tolerated as legitimate alternatives.

Ideas or actions that deviate from the Party’s official ideological line can be condemned as “factionalist” or “reactionary,” potentially resulting in political punishment.

(2) Extensive Control over Everyday Life and Thought

① Joseon Dynasty: Confucian Ethics and Control over Publications

The Joseon dynasty sought to promote Confucian virtues such as filial piety and loyalty among the population. Works such as the Samgang Haengsildo (三綱行實圖, Illustrated Guide to the Three Relationships) were compiled and distributed to encourage people to follow officially approved Confucian standards of morality in their everyday lives.

The state also restricted certain books and intellectual currents that it regarded as heterodox or politically undesirable. During the reign of King Jeongjo, the Munche Banjeong (文體反正, Literary Style Reform) was implemented in an effort to discourage literary styles and writings that the king considered inconsistent with proper Confucian scholarship.

② North Korea: Self-Criticism Sessions and Information Control

North Koreans are required to participate in regular ideological and behavioral review sessions known as saenghwal chonghwa (생활총화), in which participants engage in self-criticism and mutual criticism regarding their conduct and adherence to official ideological expectations.

The North Korean government also severely restricts access to outside information, including South Korean dramas and films, foreign books, and other overseas media. Laws such as the Reactionary Thought and Culture Denunciation Act (반동사상문화배격법) have been used to strengthen these restrictions and impose severe penalties for the possession, distribution, or consumption of prohibited foreign cultural content.

(3) Social Status and Songbun: Control Through Collective Punishment

① Joseon Dynasty

The Joseon dynasty practiced a system of collective punishment, under which the families of those convicted of serious crimes such as treason could also be held responsible.

In the case of individuals convicted of high treason, punishment could even extend to the “extermination of the three kinship groups” (三族). Through such measures, the state sought to suppress disloyalty and ideological deviation not only at the individual level but also at the family level.

② North Korea

North Korea operates a social classification system known as songbun, under which citizens are classified into categories such as the core class, wavering class, and hostile class.

A person’s social opportunities and treatment can vary according to the political history of their ancestors, their family background, and their own political evaluation. The effects of these classifications can also persist across generations.

(4) Ideological Control That Viewed Commerce as an “Evil”

① Joseon Dynasty: The Four Occupational Groups and the Suppression of Commerce

Under the influence of Neo-Confucian values, Joseon society was understood according to the hierarchy of the four occupational groups: scholars (士), farmers (農), artisans (工), and merchants (商). The dynasty pursued policies that prioritized agriculture over commerce and sought to suppress commercial activity.

It was believed that the expansion of commerce would encourage people to become extravagant, lead them to neglect agriculture, and ultimately undermine the foundations of the state.

During the early Joseon period, when local marketplaces known as jangsi (場市) were established, local government authorities would forcibly disperse them, effectively declaring, “How dare you engage in such lowly trade?” They also confiscated the goods and property of merchants.

② North Korea: Socialist Planned Economy and the Punishment of “Anti-Socialist” Activities

Under the principles of a socialist planned economy, North Korea restricts private commercial activity and the pursuit of private profit, regarding them as capitalist elements. Transactions between individuals and market activities conducted outside the state distribution system can also be classified as “anti-socialist activities” and subjected to government crackdowns and punishment.

In this respect, while Goryeo relatively broadly accommodated diversity in thought and religion, the later Joseon dynasty established Neo-Confucianism as the dominant ideology of the state and restricted competing schools of thought and learning. From this perspective, North Korea’s strict ideological control centered on Juche bears certain similarities not so much to Goryeo, but rather to the more restrictive ideological order of the Joseon dynasty.

Indeed, some reform-minded intellectuals of Joseon criticized the realities of their society and pointed out various problems within the Joseon system. In particular, they argued that commerce and the circulation of goods had been relatively active during the Goryeo period, whereas various regulations and restrictions prevented commerce from developing sufficiently under Joseon.

“The present age is not like the age of Goryeo. During the Goryeo period, there were limits on the taxes and levies imposed upon the people, and the benefits derived from mountains, forests, rivers, and marshes were shared with the people. Commerce was allowed to circulate freely, and artisans were also permitted to share in its benefits. Expenditures were adjusted according to revenues, so the state was able to maintain surplus reserves. Thus, even when sudden great wars or national mourning occurred, taxes and levies were not increased. Even toward the end of Goryeo, the state remained concerned about the ‘Three Emptinesses’ (三空).”

“Our country, Joseon, is not like this. What is collected from our impoverished people is used to maintain rituals for serving the spirits and honoring superiors on a scale equal to that of China. If the people pay five parts in taxes, scarcely one part actually reaches the public treasury, while the remainder is scattered into the hands of corrupt private individuals. Moreover, local government offices have no surplus reserves. Whenever some need arises, additional levies may be imposed twice in a single year, and local magistrates use such occasions as a pretext to extract even more from the people, with their exactions knowing virtually no limit.”

“For this reason, the suffering and resentment of the people are far more severe than they were at the end of the Goryeo dynasty. Yet those in positions of power behave as though the country were at peace and know no fear, because our country has no ‘homins’ (豪民)—bold and formidable people capable of challenging the established order...”

— Heo Gyun (許筠), “Theory of the Homin” (豪民論), Seongso Bubugo (惺所覆瓿藁), Vol. 11, Munbu 8, “Discourses” (論)

6. Consequences and Legacy

Despite the enormous differences between Goryeo and modern North Korea, many people today tend to associate Goryeo history with North Korea. One reason Goryeo receives relatively less public attention in South Korea is closely related to this geographical reality: many of Goryeo’s most important historical sites, cultural remains, and its capital, Gaegyeong (present-day Kaesong), are located in what is now North Korea.

As a result, the study and popular understanding of Goryeo history have faced certain limitations in South Korea, particularly because direct access to many of the dynasty’s most important historical sites remains extremely difficult.

Although Goryeo was a remarkably open and internationally connected kingdom that possessed formidable military power and became one of the strongest states in Korean history, it arguably receives less attention today than its historical importance deserves. One important reason is that its former capital and many of its major historical sites are concentrated in present-day North Korea.

In other words, what might be called a “North Korea discount” has significantly affected the way Goryeo history is studied, experienced, and perceived today.

As long as the current North Korean regime remains in place and access to these historical sites continues to be severely restricted, this so-called “North Korea discount” on Goryeo history is likely to persist.