Korean Central History Museum

Relocated to this present sight in 1977, this museum focuses on the history of the Korean peninsula and its people. There are around 100,000 artifacts contained over 19 rooms dating from the Stone Age through 1919. The most eclectic artifact here is the world's first time bomb. When first organized in 1947, the museum had only 2,000 artifacts, partially due to the Imperial Japanese authorities attempts to subjugate Korean history and cultural identity (this applied to both the north and south). In the intervening years, the KCHM has added numerous copper and gold lotus flower ornaments, iron tools of the Palhae Dynasty and the Taeja's Temple Bell of the Koryo Dynasty. They have organized exhibitions of Koryo Era relics, as well as porcelain from the Ri Dynasty. It is estimated that 1.6 million members of the Korean People's Army (KPA) and 150,000 ex-patriate Koreans and other foreigners have visited here.