11 ATLASES
History of North Korea in maps
North Korea as it appears in 11 interactive history atlases, from 1206 to 2000: Goryeo, Korea — north, Korea, North Korea, Chōsen — Japanese Korea, Chosen — Japanese Korea. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
WW2 is free — every chapter. No sign-up.
What was North Korea before it was North Korea? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Goryeo (mod. North Korea) · Mongol Empire
Beginning in 1231, Goryeo endured six invasions. Its court remained on Kanghwa island while the peninsula burned, and in 1259 the crown prince submitted. Korea kept its king, now a Mongol in-law, but had to supply ships. Korean shipyards built much of the Japan armadas of 1274 and 1281 through corvée labor, from which the kingdom begged relief.
| Other settled powers (Jin China, Christendom, Delhi) — the opening position | |
| Tributaries & vassals |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Korea — north (Japanese from 1910) · Industrial Revolution
| Opened by force or treaty — the opening position | |
| Opened by force or treaty | |
| Colony or dependency |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Korea (Joseon, then Japanese Chōsen; mod. North Korea) · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
North Korea shares the earlier history of the Korean kingdom: Japan imposed a settlement at Wonsan in 1880, fought at Pyongyang in 1894 and annexed Korea in 1910. After 1945 the North became a communist state allied to Moscow and Beijing, although it remained outside the Soviet bloc. The end of Soviet aid and cheap oil in 1991 brought economic collapse, followed by famine in the mid-1990s. The Soviet transition had costs far beyond Moscow.
| Independent neighbours — the opening position | |
| Domains, vassals, protectorates | |
| Meiji Japan and its empire |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Korea (Japanese) · Russian Revolution
Korea was a kingdom under Qing protection until 1895 and then the independent Korean Empire until Japan occupied it in 1904. The map accordingly shows it as neutral before 1904 and as a Japanese possession from that date; Japan formally annexed it in 1910. The Russian Far East stood at the edge of an expanding Japanese empire, whose ambitions in Manchuria and Siberia shaped the intervention.
| Neutral or independent — the opening position | |
| Foreign powers & intervention |
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
North Korea · WWI
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories — the opening position | |
| Entente-aligned & imperial territories |
Chōsen — Japanese Korea (mod. North Korea) · Chinese Revolution
The northern half of Japanese Chōsen became an industrial arsenal for the colony, with dams, chemical works and mines. The Soviet army occupied it in August 1945. Kim Il-sung’s Manchurian partisans, among the guerrillas who returned with the army, had fought within the area shown on this map. Their Kapsan raids into the border country belonged to the same world of anti-Japanese resistance as the Chinese base areas. The state they built reflected the era’s lesson of party, army and leader. Its war in 1950 brought the new China back to the peninsula within a year of the PRC’s founding.
| The Empire of Japan & its puppets — the opening position | |
| Foreign empires — British, French, Russian, American |
CHINESE REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Korea (north) · Stalin’s Soviet Union
Japanese colonial rule in Korea ended in 1945. Soviet troops occupied the north and American troops the south. In the Soviet zone, Kim Il Sung, a former Red Army captain, was installed as leader; the Democratic People’s Republic was proclaimed in 1948. Stalin approved Kim’s invasion of the south in 1950. The resulting Korean War is followed in the Cold War atlas.
| Rivals & the Western bloc — the opening position | |
| Satellites & communist allies |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Chosen — Japanese Korea · Road to WW2
| The aggressors (Japan, Germany, Italy) — the opening position |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
North Korea · WW2
After Korea’s liberation, the Soviet-occupied northern zone became a separate communist state by 1948. Its leader, Kim Il-sung, had been an anti-Japanese guerrilla. The North’s invasion of the South in 1950 made the 38th parallel the Cold War’s hottest line.
| Axis powers — the opening position | |
| Soviet Union |
North Korea · Cold War
The Soviet occupation zone became North Korea, a hereditary totalitarian state. Its gamble in June 1950 killed millions and won nothing. American bombing of the North (Ch. 4) remains central to its official memory and its nuclear logic. The state outlived its Soviet patron: the 1991 map shows it in charcoal, communist, alone, and armed.
| Soviet-aligned states — the opening position | |
| Communist, outside Moscow’s bloc |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
North Korea (the DPRK) · Mao’s China
In June 1950 North Korea invaded the South with Stalin’s approval, drawing the People’s Republic into its first war. Chinese troops saved Kim Il-sung’s state and remained until 1958. Kim subsequently played Beijing and Moscow against each other, borrowing from both while proclaiming juche, his own ideology of self-reliance. The Korean border along the Yalu remained China’s most dangerous frontier until the Soviet clashes of 1969.
| Beijing’s allies and friends — the opening position |
MAO’S CHINA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Related
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Get a printable atlas study guide of your choice free. I’ll send you a few short letters, then one when a new atlas opens. That’s all. — Paul
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME