Modern Joseon Architecture is North Korea's unique building style that interprets Korean traditional architecture in a modern way, and its most distinctive design feature is the Paljak roof that decorates the upper part of the buildings. This paper argues that continuous attempts at characterizing the nature of traditional Korean architecture in the late 1950s and early 1960s developed the theoretical rationale for the exclusive use of the Paljak roof in Modern Joseon Architecture. It also argues that the construction of the Pyongyang Grand Theater and the Okryu Restaurant during this period became a decisive moment for the formalization of the Paljak roof. The double roof rafters and gables and the "cheerful yet solemn" roofline were considered as main characteristic features of the Korean roof and the Paljak roof perfectly fits this description. Particularly, in North Korean society where Kim Il Sung became idolized as an impersonalized deity, an anecdote in which Kim Il Sung fixed a prominent gabled roof in the Pyongyang Grand Theater into a Paljak roof has allowed for the roof to gain an exclusive status. Hence, almost all Modern Joseon Architecture since the 1960s accepted the Paljak roof’s monopoly position, rather than experimenting with other traditional roof types.

During the 1950s, the North Koreans rebuilt their capital—Pyongyang—as a modern city under the principle of Soviet urban design. One North Korean architect, Kim Jung-hee, has been widely credited since the late 1980s as the master architect of the General Plan of the city’s reconstruction. While Kim Jung-hee played a crucial role in its reconstruction, his heroic image as the founding architect of Pyongyang is considerably attributed to North Korea’s mythical narratives rather than his historical activities. This paper argues that Pyongyang’s postwar urban design was not a work made by a single actor, Kim Jung-hee; rather, it was a long-term collaborative project in which a team of North Korean architects and Soviet technical advisors took their respective roles. Beginning in the late 1980s, North Korea, which had been struggling with economic decline and an increasing sense of lagging behind in its rivalry with its Southern counterpart, used heroic narratives during the 1950s’ postwar reconstruction period as an important propaganda tool for their regime. In this mythical narrative of Pyongyang’s reconstruction, massive economic and technical aid from other communist countries has often disappeared, and the memory of the architects who contributed greatly to the reconstruction but later purged in North Korea have also completely vanished. Kim Jung-hee, meanwhile, remained in this epic as the founding architect who rebuilt the city in faithful accordance with the leadership of Kim Il Sung.