A review of the current status of North Korean calligraphy culture to restore the homogeneity of inter-Korean culture.(2): 'A Study on North Korea's Calligraphy Origin and Juche Calligraphy(주체서예) Growth and Establishment Process'
Authors:   The Korean Society of Calligraphy, Kim Jung-nam 
Published: April 2024

This study is a review of the second sub-topic of the research project of the Korea Research Foundation, 'A Study on North Korea's Calligraphy Origin and Juche Calligraphy Growth and Establishment Process'.
Regarding Calligraphy Origin, contrary to the general point of view, North Korea established Korean calligraphy and created another concept of calligraphy called 'Juche Calligraphy(主體書藝)'. The content related to Calligraphy Origin, this research project, has a greater gap between the two Koreas than any other field.
This study aims to objectively grasp the reality of North Korea as it is and accurately derive the reality before the problem of right and wrong. This is a shortcut to knowing North Korean calligraphy properly. It was judged that its academic value was great. The logic was developed by making some criticisms on this.
North Korea established the origins of Korean calligraphy and Juche calligraphy based on the Juche ideology(主體思想). First, North Korea said that 'Korean calligraphy origin was Shinji letter (including Garimto letter) from the Gojoseon period. It is more than 1,000 years earlier than the first Chinese letter, Gapgolmun(甲骨), and Pyongyang is the origin of oriental calligraphy. Through the evidence, excavated relics, and historical ruins, North Korea tried to prove its existence. The representative data are the 16 Shinji letters in “Yeongbyeonji” and the 38 Garimto letters in “Dangunsegi”, as the standard for claiming the origin of Korean calligraphy. And Shinji letters is the model(典範) of the Hunminjeongeum typeface, and it is the world's longest-standing typeface with Korean national calligraphy in the ancient period.
However, there is a problem in that South Korean academia does not recognize academic value, such as Taebaekilsa, Dangunsegi, and Gyuwonsa, which are presented as evidence in North Korea. In addition, various theories exist in South Korea regarding the Hunminjeongeum font, and after the discovery of the Hunminjeongeum Haerye version(훈민정음 해례본) in the 1940s, the origin of the Hangeul creation was placed on the theory of hieroglyphics. These are still areas that require continuous discussion between the two Koreas.
Second, the birth background of Juche calligraphy is that our own national calligraphy took place in the context of Chinese character worship of the ruling class and the Japanese national culture extinction policy. The Juche calligraphy theory seems to have started with Kim Jong-il's Juche art theory in 1992 and was formalized in Oh Kwang-seop's『Juche calligraphy』in 1997.
In North Korea, it is regarded as “Joseon Independence” by handwritten by Kim Il-sung five years old as the origin of Juche calligraphy. With the emergence of “Joseon Independence”, a new stage has unfolded in the revolutionary calligraphy development of the working class. It is said that it opened the way for the development of independent and revolutionary calligraphy that is fundamentally different from the calligraphy of the previous period. In particular, the calligraphy shape during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle is a tradition of Juche calligraphy and is the original.
Third, as a process of developing Juche calligraphy, ① played a role as a strong ideological weapon of Kim Il-sung's revolutionary struggle and construction projects after liberation. ② Kim Jong-il created monument calligraphy and opened a new era of calligraphy. ③ It solidified the institutional and educational conditions related to calligraphy that have taken root in today's North Korean calligraphy.
As such, it is confirmed that the calligraphy culture between the two Koreas is very differentiated.