Having settled in Pyongyang, one of the cradles of human civilization, and its surroundings from long ago, the Korean ancestors came to have an aesthetic consciousness of shape, comparison, symmetry, repetition and change and invented paints, brush, carving tools, methods and techniques to develop independent and diverse domains of fine arts like paintings, industrial arts, sculpture and architecture.

Primitive persons found out such formative, visual and expressive means as spot, line, color and volume and used them in communication.

They laid the beginning of architecture since the middle of the Old Stone Age and built structures like dolmen in the Bronze Age.

Dolmen discovered in Korea was built in B.C. 4900-4000, away back of the dolmen of France believed to be built in B.C. 2500-2000.

A pipha-shaped dagger invented in the period of Ancient Korea (early 30th century B.C.-108 B.C.) was different from a kind of bronze dagger of the ancient Asian region for its peculiar and refined shape. In the period, Sinji characters (ancient Korean letters) and writing materials were invented, together with pigments.

The fine arts made its progress in the periods of the Three Kingdoms--Koguryo (B.C.277-A.D.668), Paekje (late 1st century B.C.-660) and Silla (early 1st century-935).

Typical was the Koguryo paintings. As of now, more than one hundred Koguryo mural tombs have been discovered and some of them were registered as the world cultural heritages. The Koguryo mural paintings prove that the integral art of drawing had been already established in that period.

Porcelains produced in the reign of the Koryo Kingdom (918-1392) and white porcelains of later period are showing the development of workmanship at that time.

The Korean nation's fine arts has developed into the Juche-based fine arts, national in form and socialist in content, thanks to the guidance of the peerlessly great men.

Numbers of masterpieces are being produced at the comprehensive fine arts producing bases like the Mansudae Art Studio in the DPRK.