The bird, native to Korea, pricks holes more than 6.5 cm deep on chestnut, oak, pine-nut, pine and other big trees to hunt insects.

The useful bird was firstly found in Kyonggi Province, Korea in summer of 1886. It was propagated in areas south of Mts. Songak and Chonma in Kaesong, Korea and Tsushima, Japan. With environment destroyed and people catching the bird at random, it totally disappeared in Japan around in October 1920. It was also hardly seen in Korea.

President Kim Il Sung took measures in 1952, during the Fatherland Liberation War, to protect the bird from extermination and had the white-bellied black woodpecker in Mt. Songak in Kaesong listed as a national asset in 1956.

An order of the Cabinet on protecting and propagating the bird and creating its reserves was adopted in September 1969. Reserves appeared in Phyongsan and Rinsan counties of North Hwanghae Province and Pongchon County of South Hwanghae Province.

With reserves steadily increasing, the number of the bird has grown in the country.