War of words over ancient kingdom of Koguryo
In an atheist dictatorship and “workers’ paradise” such as North Korea, King Tongmyong is not an obvious national hero. A legendary archer and horseman of the 1st century BC, he ruled by force of arms. But at his tomb at Ryongsan in North Korea, a country based on its aggressive rejection of feudalism and elitism, he is revered as a national hero.
The reason is his status as the founder of Koguryo, an ancient kingdom regarded as the font of Korean civilisation. Outside north-east Asia it is little known outside — but it has dragged both North and South Korea into a bitter and simmering dispute with the region’s most powerful country, China, about the historical ownership of a state which ceased to exist more than 1300 years ago.
The ancient Koguryo kingdom was defeated by its neighbours in 668AD. But every few months, Koreans unite in protest at hints from Beijing that Koguryo was a Chinese territory. The latest volley, in what the South Korean press calls the “north-east Asian history war”, came last Sunday, when Chinese academics held a ceremony to mark the discovery of a previously unknown stretch of the Great Wall in Dandong, close to the North Korean border.
The find extends the ancient boundaries of China to the heart of ancient Koguryo – and strengthens the claim that far from being the proudly independent kingdom remembered by Koreans, it was an insignificant vassal of the Middle Kingdom.
Established in 37BC, in what is now northern Korea and southern Manchuria, the Koguryo period is regarded by Koreans as a golden age. It produced distinguished scholars and Buddhist divines; the modern name of Korea ultimately derives from Koguryo.
But in 2003, China’s state media began referring to Koguryo as part of China. Equivalents are difficult to find but it is as if King Arthur’s Camelot was sudden claimed by the Germans. “What is intolerable for a people who have struggled to safeguard their national sovereignty and achieve economic independence over the past few decades is a feeling that we are again being cornered,” the Seoul newspaper Chosun Ilbo wrote.