Ethnically based cultural conceptions of what it is to be Korean constituted the primary identity marker of the North Korean population in the Kim Il Sungist period and the era of military-first politics. These cultural conceptions of national identity were partly a product of historical consciousness in the population and partly a result of the relentless promotion by North Korean governments of ethnic identity as fundamental to Korean political identity. North Korean governments promoted the development of revolutionary consciousness as a normatively appropriate aim for individuals but these ideas of what constituted the appropriate way of life for individuals were justified through and subordinated to ethnic conceptions of national identity.

North Korea shared with South Korea an understanding of Korean national identity. This was underpinned by a distinctive ethnic identity arising from a unique and special cultural patrimony constituted by a common history, culture, founding myths, language and homeland. North Korea also shared with South Korea a story of the constitution of modern Korea as the product of a more or less linear development traced back into ancient history, for at least five thousand years. Historical Korea is understood by both states as having a recognisably common geographical heartland south of today's border with China and covering the whole of what is today understood as the ‘Korean' peninsula. Also shared is the understanding of the Korean nation as having been historically vulnerable to foreign predations that threatened to eradicate core aspects of Korean identity as well as to take over the national territory.

Northern historians assert the distinctiveness of northern history in their claim that states and leaders from the northern half of the peninsula historically provided leadership to the Korean nation in the struggle for political independence. North Korean governments interpret Korean history to demonstrate northern superiority over South Korea in respect to historical, cultural and political claims to represent the Korean nation.