December 16, 2025
SEOUL – Would you believe Korea once ruled all of Asia and much of Europe?
So claims “Hwandan Gogi,” a compilation of supposed ancient texts that purports to chronicle some 9,000 years of Korean history. According to the book, an ancient kingdom called Hwanguk spanned “50,000 ri north to south and 20,000 li east to west.”
As a traditional Korean unit of distance, 1 ri is approximately 393 meters, which would mean a territory spanning nearly 20,000 kilometers from northern tip to the southernmost point.
One need not be a historian to find that a difficult position to uphold. But the obscure text was thrust into the spotlight last week after President Lee Jae Myung raised it during a Cabinet briefing on Friday with the Northeast Asian History Foundation, a government body under the Ministry of Education.
When the foundation’s Chair Park Ji-hyang stated her organization prioritizes documentary evidence, Lee asked whether “Hwandan Gogi” “was not also a historical text.”
After opposition lawmakers and historians raised alarms about the exchange, presidential spokesperson Kim Nam-jun clarified Sunday that the president’s remarks did not signal any form of endorsement.
So what exactly does the book claim? First published in 1979 by Lee Yu-rip, the founder of a syncretic religious movement, “Hwandan Gogi” presents a grand narrative stretching Korean history back millennia before written records.
It describes a primordial empire called Hwanguk, a confederation of 12 kingdoms that purportedly ruled the entirety of Eurasia for over 3,000 years. That was followed by Baedalguk under the deity Hwanung, then 47 generations of Dangun rulers presiding over Gojoseon — which, in the book’s telling, governed much of Manchuria and northeastern China.
Historians say the evidence of inauthenticity is overwhelming. No verifiable manuscript predating the 20th century exists to support the book’s claims. The text contains modern Korean vocabulary and Sino-Korean terms that do not match the periods it describes. Researchers have also found passages borrowed word-for-word from modern texts.
“There’s nothing controversial about it,” said Lee Moon-young, a historian and author of the 2018 book “A Critique of Pseudohistory.” “‘Hwandan Gogi’ is an obvious forgery.”
Lee, who runs a blog dedicated to debunking claims rooted in “Hwandan Gogi” and similar texts, said the president’s question to the foundation chair was “misplaced.” Still, he noted the administration moved swiftly to walk back the remarks, avoiding what could have sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing, whose own historical narratives conflict with the book’s sweeping territorial claims.
“When ‘Hwandan Gogi’ became a bestseller in 1986, Koreans were still living under the grip of military dictatorship,” Lee said. “Claims that our ancestors were once great served as a release valve at a time when the country lagged behind the West both politically and economically.”
Ki Kyoung-ryang, an associate professor of Korean history at the Catholic University of Korea, was equally direct. “Among historians, there’s not 1 percent of room for debate,” he said. “‘Hwandan Gogi’ is a classic fabricated text.”
Asked whether the debate surrounding the president’s remarks reflected a partisan divide, Ki cautioned against such framing.
“This kind of pseudohistory is spread across both left and right, progressives and conservatives alike,” he said. “The opposition is attacking it now because of the president’s remarks, but their side has plenty of believers too.”
“Fundamentally, ‘Hwandan Gogi’ is based on a fascist view of history,” Ki said. “During the colonial period, there were Japanese figures making similar claims — that Imperial Japan held historical and cultural sway over the whole continent. After liberation, nationalists in Korea simply swapped in Korea as the subject and began spreading the same ideas.”
A map generated by artificial intelligence shows the purported territory of the Hwan Empire, or Hwanguk, a pan-Eurasian empire described in the text of “Hwandan Gogi.” MAP CREATED USING GEMINI AND PROVIDED BY THE KOREA HERALD