On the ridge of Mt Taebak in Munhung-ri of Kangdong County in Pyongyang, there stands the Mausoleum of King Tangun, the founding father of the Korean nation, which was reconstructed magnificently to add brilliance to the 5 000-year history of the nation.

   King Tangun who had been known as a mythical being for thousands of years was identified as a real person and the founder of the Korean nation. The great national cause of demonstrating this was successfully achieved by President Kim Il Sung. The Koreans, who had lived for thousands of years as a homogeneous nation with one language and culture on the same territory had had a great worship of King Tangun since ancient times.

   The Tangun myth, which was created by the people of Ancient Joson can be claimed to be the crystal of worship of Tangun, which was expressed at the highest level of consciousness at the time.

   After Ancient Joson collapsed, Tangun worship was handed down to the Koguryo people.

   As the Koguryo people regarded King Jumong (King Tongmyong), the founder of Koguryo, as a descendant of King Tangun, they reconstructed his tomb along with the tomb of King Tongmyong.

   The people of Silla also made an idol of Tangun. A famous painter of Later Silla, named Solgo, thought that he achieved fame as he dreamed of receiving a brush from Tangun and painted a picture with the brush. A legend has it that he painted over a thousand portraits of Tangun he saw in the dream as he was so grateful for the favour shown by him.

   The Koryo people acknowledged Tangun as progenitor common to all countries that existed in Korea and as its founding father and built the Tangun Temple in Mt Kuwol to hold memorial services.

   Between the close of the Koryo dynasty and the early period of feudal Joson dynasty, the ancestors acknowledged Tangun’s Korea as the first dynasty in Korean history, asserting that the first country established in the East was Ancient Joson of Tangun.

   In the period of the feudal Joson dynasty, people held memorial services for him everywhere including at the Tangun Temple in Mt Kuwol and the Sungryong Hall in Pyongyang, and at the close of the feudal Joson dynasty, he was introduced in history textbooks for ordinary schools.

   But this traditional conception kept by the Korean nation was utterly trampled underfoot by the policy of obliterating Tangun pursues by the Japanese imperialists who occupied Korea.

   From the outset of their occupation of Korea the Japanese imperialists ran amuck to erase the Koreans’ worship of Tangun in a bid to obliterate their consciousness of national independence and justify their invasion and domination of Korea. As the date of founding of Tangun’s Korea (B.C. 2333) written in old records is nearly 1700 years earlier than the date of found of Japan (B.C. 660) recorded in the myth about its national foundation, the Japanese were unable to justify their gangster-like theory of colonial rule that the “superior” Yamato nation should rule the “inferior” Korean nation without obliterating Tangun by neglecting historic records on Tangun’s Korea.

   That is why at the outset of Japan’s occupation of Korea lots of Japanese policemen searched all over the bookshops, old-time schools, lecture halls and private houses throughout the country, forcibly confiscated history books related to Tangun and burned them all. And the government-patronized scholars of Japan falsely “demonstrated” that Tangun was a mythical being cooked up by Buddhists and employed all crafty and vicious methods to erase him from Korean history.

   The Koreans’ history of national ruin in modern ages teaches a lesson of blood that a ruined nation is doomed to lose its ancestor.

   Although mythical legends about Tangun were handed down after Korea’s liberation, there was a divergence of opinions as to whether Tangun was a real person or not among the Koreans due to the aftereffect of the Japanese policy of obliterating Tangun.

   Even historians who engaged in the study of Tangun and Ancient Joson for a long time confined themselves to the analysis of the myth instead of making efforts to find out the remains of Tangun by regarding lots of myths about him as a reflection of actual fact.

   Just at that time, President Kim Il Sung guided Korean historians to think about the excavation of Tangun’s remains.

   As he directed the work to turn Mt Kuwol into the people’s cultural recreation ground, he paid deep attention to the legend and remains related to Tangun in the area and assigned historians the task to make an indepth investigation into the legend and remains associated with the mountain.

   And as he was busy with leading the revolution and construction, he studied history books and told the scholars what they failed to think of.

   One day in September Juche 81 (1992), the President said that though the story of Tangun was no more than a mythical legend, it should not be ignored, adding he was going to restore the Tangun Temple, which had been neglected by the Japanese imperialists and destroyed by the US imperialists and the legend of him as well.

   In the course of deepening the study under the wise leadership of the President, the historians came to pay attention to the names of places associated with Tangun such as Tangun-dong, Adal-dong, Mt Taebak and Mt Adal in Kangdong County and the tomb of King Tangun.

   They made a systematic study of historical records related to the tomb, looked it round and had talks with the locals. On the basis of this, they analysed information and came to a conclusion that there was no reason to deny the tomb of King Tangun in Kangdong County.

   After being informed of this the President dispatched a senior official to the spot to confirm the information, and on January 8, Juche 82 (1993) he saw to it that the tomb was unearthed. Therefore, the historic excavation began.

   The historians were aware that the tomb had illegally dug out by the Japanese imperialists, so they did not expect that they could find any valuable relics in the tomb.

   They only hoped to find any clue confirming the style of the tomb, clarifying the period of construction and elucidating the reason why it was called the “tomb of King Tangun”.

   But in the course of the excavation they unexpectedly discovered human bones at the bottom of the chamber, the frontal ornament of a metal crown, pieces of a gilt bronze crown, a tablet and earthenware.

   After learning about this the President instructed to the scholars not to make a slight mistake in the investigation.

   After the excavation was over, they appraised the bones and carried on the dating of them day and night.

   After acquainting himself with such a situation, Chairman Kim Jong Il ensured that the date was ascertained with a latest dating apparatus.

   The dating irrefutably confirmed that Tangun actually existed about 5 011 years before.

   After President Kim Il Sung was informed of the excavation results, he convened a consultative meeting of relevant officials on September 25, Juche 82 (1993) and gave instructions concerning the research into Tangun and the history of Ancient Joson and the reconstruction of his tomb.

   Referring to the fact that archeologists had recently excavated the tomb of King Tangun and found out his bones and relics, he said the result showed that the bones dated back 5 011 years. Describing the discovery of the bones through the excavation as a great victory of the archaeology of the DPRK and a great pride of the Korean nation, he said it became possible to proudly boast that the Korean nation is a homogeneous one with Tangun as the founder and highly praised the archaeologists for having achieved a great thing.

   On the basis of the archaeological success of discovering the bones of King Tangun, he noted, we should splendidly reconstruct the tomb of the founding father of the nation and hand it down to posterity.

   Since Tangun is the father of the Korean nation, he continued, his tomb should be built higher and larger than the Mausoleum of King Tongmyong in order to give prominence to the founding father and it should be erected in the shape of pyramid with stones, not with earth like the Mausoleum of King Tongmyong.

   President Kim Il Sung told officials to build a gate at the back of the tomb so that people could get in and look around the inside; make space there for over 10 people to move freely, and put the unearthed bones of King Tangun and his wife in a glass coffin and seal it up with argon in them in order to keep them in the chamber. He also instructed them how to write an explanatory note to be put up in front of the glass coffin.

   He also said that for the successful reconstruction of the tomb, it is necessary to organize the Mausoleum of King Tangun Reconstruction Committee and properly carry on the project scrupulously, and pointed to the need to make an indepth study of Tangun and the history of Ancient Joson and fix the founding year of Ancient Joson by Tangun afresh now that his remains were unearth and their date were scientifically ascertained.

   Two days after the historic conference, the President inspected the unearthed tomb. It had been repaired and reconstructed in Juche 25 (1936) by the association for the repair of the tomb of King Tangun.

   As he looked around the tomb the President said that he had expected it might be magnificent, but actually it was small, and that he had thought the feudal Joson dynasty had done had done something in its 500 years, but it had done nothing.

   He then made his way to a monument to achievements made for the tomb of King Tangun at the eastern site of the tomb.

   Saying that nationalists organized an association for safeguarding the tomb of King Tangun and raised funds to rebuild it and erected the historic monument to King Tangun, he stated that though Kim Sang Jun, head of the association was a big landowner he cherished the spirit of Korean nation and was a patriot as he rebuilt the tomb.

   He said he felt regret at the absence of a tombstone in the Mausoleum of King Tangun from the period of the feudal Joson dynasty like that at the Mausoleum of King Tongmyong, he referred to the need to properly preserve the monument at the tomb as it would serve as historical data although it was erected during the Japanese military rule.

   Pointing at the stone lions which were built during the improvement of the tomb of King Tangun in Juche 25 (1936) on both front sides of the tomb, he said that it looked like small puppies and that there was no lion but tiger in Korea so it was a mistake to build lions in front of the tomb.

   The President also carefully examined the remains unearthed from the tomb.

   Feeling something wanting as there was not head bone, he told officials to make imitations of the disappeared bones and fix them with real ones so as to put them in the glass coffins and enshrine them inside the mausoleum.

   After inspection he instructed that a mausoleum of King Tangun should be reconstructed properly at a good place and brought historians to a place he had selected.

   Upon arrival at the road in front of the present place of the mausoleum he indicated the peak of a hillock near the road as he said the hillock ridge, where there is Munhung-ri dolmen, was the best place for the site of the mausoleum. It would be nice to rebuild the mausoleum there that people could see far and get an extensive view and it would be convenient for foreigners to visit by vehicles as it would be near the road, he said. He also gave precious instructions related to the building of steps up to the mausoleum, laying of roads along the ridges of the mountains and the like.

   Afterwards, he gave teachings about the reconstruction project on several occasions. On July 6, Juche 83 (1994), though he was busy directing the conference of senior officials of economic sectors, he examined the final design of the mausoleum of and referred to the need to carry out the project at an early date.

   Two days later, however, the President passed away to everyone’s regret. The Korean people turned out in the reconstruction project with the firm determination to carry out his lifetime instruction and completed it on October 11, Juche 83 (1994) and held the unveiling ceremony the President hoped for so much.

   The Mausoleum of King Tangun covers an area of 45 hectares and is 22 metres high. It was built in 9 tiers with 1 994 granite stones. The square pyramid type of stone tomb with its stereobate being 50 metres rose up as another masterpiece in the era of the Workers’ Party.

   In the chamber which is spacious enough for ten people to look around, there are two glass coffins of King Tangun and his wife on a stone step. And at the four corners of the mausoleum there are stone sculptures of intrepid Korean tigers and four towers representing pipha-shaped dagger and on both sides of the steps there are elaborately cut stone statues including those portraying the sons of Tangun and subjects.

   As they see the gorgeously renovated the mausoleum the Korean people recollect the immortal exploits performed by the President, the father of the nation, peerless patriot and great sage who made all pains to find the founder of the Korean nation and reconstruct the Mausoleum of King Tangun majestically.