Joson was the first name of Korea. Its founding father was Tangun, and it occupied a vast area centring on Pyongyang and made development in politics, the economy, culture and so on.

Samgukyusa (a book which described the history and anecdotes of the ancient states in Korea and was compiled in the late 13th century), introduced the “myth of Tangun” for the first time. It reads in part, “Tangun chose the Walled City of Pyongyang as the capital and called his country Joson,” and “There was King Tangun who designated Asadal as the capital, founded the country and called it Joson.”

The articles related to the nation-building of Tangun’s Korea told by the successive classics of the country have different names of places, and Pyongyang and Asadal were frequently mentioned among them.

Pyongyang is presumed to be a Ridu -style (Chinese characters used for their sound values to write Korean particles) expression of puruna of the ancient Korean language.

Korean ancestors called the river flowing through a plain puruna . Gradually, they also called the village that adjoined the river puruna . Finally, puruna referred to the capital of the country.

Asadal originated from the word tongbang (east), achim (morning), saeroun (new) or palgun (bright) mountain. In other words, Asa connotes the meanings of “bright morning” and “the east bringing about a bright light.”

From ancient times, Koreans have interpreted Jo of Joson as achim (morning), achul and asa , and son of Joson as pul , pal , pak and pit .

It can be said that Joson both incorporated the meanings of Asadal and Pyongyang, the geographical names indicating the capital of Ancient Joson and, at the same time, it meant “bright morning” and “the east bringing about a bright light.”

In general, the name of a state is designated with its establishment, and the state originated in an area where the economy and culture developed since the end of primitive society.

The capital of Tangun’s Korea, the first dynasty of its kind in Korea established in the early 30th century BC, was called Pyongyang or Asadal. This was a historical condition for this to be reflected in the name of the country.

From of old, Pyongyang was one of the cradles of mankind pioneered by the Korean ancestors and a place where ancient Koreans, ancestors of the Korean nation, were widespread. While conquering nature step by step, they steadily transformed society and culture and created their own intrinsic and developed material and spiritual wealth. These socio-historical factors, which had been established in the preceding period, came to be reflected in the name of the country when the first state was founded in the region.

The name of the country Joson reflects the will of Tangun, founder of the country, and the political group headed by him.

Tangun was also called King Paktal, and Paktal (bright mountain) was the name of Tangun’s tribe and the name of their place.

At first, Tangun was the chief of the Paktal tribe, and then he built a country and became its king. Asadal and Paktal mean “morning shines” and “morning sun rises.” In fact, the word Joson has almost the same meaning as Asadal and Paktal.

That was why he called his country Joson.

The name of the country Joson has time-honoured history.

Joson, the country of morning calm in the East, which emerged as a country built by Tangun, shone its name and left indelible traces in the history of naming the subsequent states of the Korean nation.

October 3, the birthday of Tangun, is being celebrated as the National Foundation Day in the DPRK.

Kong Myong Song, department director of Academy of Social Sciences