At the proposal of President Kim Il Sung, the Korean Committee for Compilation of Pharmacopoeia was organized in December Juche 45 (1956).

Volume 1 of the "DPRK Pharmacopoeia" was published in 1960, which paved a way to examine locally-made and imported medicines, and later six other volumes were brought out.

Vols. 2, 3 and 4 deal with traditional Korean medicinal materials.

Vol. 5, which came off the press in the mid-1990's, introduces hundreds of kinds of new drugs.

Vol. 6, published in 2004, contains lots of test indexes and methods.

Vol. 7, issued last year, is annexed with the reference book "Collection of Thin-layer Chromatogram and Ultraviolet Spectrum of Koryo Medicines".