Bukhan or Joson? Seoul debates official name of North Korea

Participants have a debate during the conference “Naming for Peaceful Coexistence: Bukhan or Joson,” hosted by the Korean Political Science Association and sponsored by the unification ministry at the Press Center in central Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

“I have never thought of or called North Korea as 'Joson' in my life. Joson for me is the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910),” said Lee Ye-seul, 37, a South Korean office worker.

Like Lee, most South Koreans would never consider calling North Korea by its official name — the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or "Joson" in its shortened Korean form. The familiar term here is "Bukhan," meaning North Korea in Korean.

North Korea, for its part, calls itself Joson or the Republic and refers to its southern counterpart as "Namjoson," meaning South Joson.

That ingrained habit is now the subject of a formal public debate. The Ministry of Unification has opened discussions on what South Korea should officially call its northern neighbor, after Unification Minister Chung Dong-young spent recent months consistently using the North's official name of Joson.

Chung pointed to a reciprocal shift already underway in the North, where the former designation of Namjoson has gradually given way to the South's official name, "Daehanminguk," or its abbreviation "Hanguk."

The move appears to align with the government’s broader initiative for peaceful coexistence between the two Koreas, a policy considered to be a response to the North’s increasingly hostile two-state policy since 2023, when Pyongyang began openly using the South’s official name amid fraying inter-Korean relations.

The debate was addressed Wednesday at a conference titled "Naming for Peaceful Coexistence: Bukhan or Joson," hosted by the Korean Political Science Association and sponsored by the unification ministry.

Most panelists argued that adopting the North's official name would not compromise the South's Constitution, which stipulates North Korea as South Korean territory and North Koreans as South Korean nationals.

“Calling North Korea 'Bukhan' didn’t help unify the two Koreas — if anything, it helped entrench the division,” Sogang University professor Kim Sung-kyung said.

“Now is the time to rebuild relations (by referring to each other by their official names), when the two Koreas are firmly established as independent countries.”

Lee Dong-ki, a professor at Gangwon National University, went further, arguing that the two Koreas had already parted ways on a fundamental level.

“The two Koreas started to become different nations. In the long term, we may need to give up on unification or fundamentally reconsider what unification means. This move could help build peace, and calling North Korea by its official name could be the starting point,” Lee said.

Kwon Eun-min, a lawyer at Kim & Chang, addressed the legal dimension, noting that referring to North Korea by Joson does not amount to formal state recognition and does not conflict with the Constitution, which define the entire Korean Peninsula as South Korean territory and designate the goal of peaceful unification.

Regarding the North and unification, the Constitution stipulates, “The territory of the Republic of Korea shall consist of the Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands,” and “The Republic of Korea shall seek unification and shall formulate and carry out a policy of peaceful unification based on a free and democratic order.”

However, not all experts claim that calling the North as Joson is appropriate.

Park Won-gon, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University, warned that adopting Pyongyang's preferred terminology would amount to accepting its hostile two-state framework.

"It is the same as giving up on unification,” Park said.

Jo Seong-ryeol, a visiting professor at Kyungnam University, offered a middle ground.

“It is acceptable to call each other in the international settings — as both sides have done at inter-Korean summits. But domestically, it is appropriate to call it Bukhan,” Jo is quoted as saying.

The debate drew sharp criticism from some political circles. Rep. Song Eon-seog, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party, decried the move to publicly discuss the terminology, deeming it unconstitutional.

“Calling North Korea Joson amounts to accepting the North’s hostile two-state framework and recognizing the country as an independent equal state. This is against Article 3 of the Constitution, which does not recognize the North as an independent state, and Article 4, which designates the North as the subject of unification efforts,” Song said, adding that the matter was not open for debate and calling for Chung's removal from office.

The unification ministry said the question of terminology would not be decided unilaterally. "It will be determined through public deliberation via various channels," a ministry official said Tuesday.