Choe Hae San was a gifted weapons technician who made a great contribution to annihilating the Japanese pirates by inventing powerful powder weapons in the first half of the 15th century.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Choe Mu Son (1326-1395) who had devoted his whole life to the development of powder weapons, he further developed the gunpowder production method and invented many powder weapons, thereby rendering significant services to growing national strength.
At 15 he got a book written by his father on making gunpowder from his mother and studied it hard. In 1401 he was appointed an official of Kungisi, a government agency in charge of military hardware production and made painstaking efforts to develop gunpowder and powder weapons.
Thanks to his efforts Hwacha, a weapon that fires off a volley of shots, was manufactured for the first time in 1409, and Kungisi took possession of 13 500 powder weapons and about 4 188 kilogrammes of gunpowder in 1417.
Later a new gun that could fire two cannon balls simultaneously was developed.
Facts show that the power of gunpowder was increased considerably thanks to the efforts of Choe Hae San and other weapons technicians while sustained big efforts were directed to the production and development of the gunpowder and powder weapons.
The gunpowder and powder weapons manufacturing technology in the early period of the feudal Joson dynasty (1392-1910) dated back to the period of the Koryo dynasty. Choe Hae San played a significant role in the effort to further develop and complete the technology.
Kim In Chol, section chief of the Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences
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