The fact is proven by stone knives, stone needles and other archaeological data, which were found at ruined houses dating back to the Neolithic Stone Age in the Sophohang relic site of Rason City of the DPRK.

The stone needle treatment spread to the neighboring countries. A record left in history books of those countries reads "Ancient Korea has lots of gem stone under which lie lots of needle stone". Another record reads "Stone needle is good for treating skin boil. Stone needle originated from Korea".

In 1000 B.C., metal needles were made and exported to other countries and in the period of the Three Kingdoms (early 3rd century B.C. - middle 7th century A.D.), famous doctors of Koguryo and Paekje went to Japan and helped its medical development. Especially renowned was the acupuncture of Koguryo, which inherited stone needle-related medical achievements of Ancient Korea and introduced various types of metal needles through the development of metalworking.

Later acupuncture technology further developed, making it a further refined and independent sector.

Today the acupuncture, traditional Korean medicine maintained for thousands of years, combined with new methods has become lots more efficacious in treating respiratory, circulatory, digestive, urino-genital and endocrine system diseases.

Acupuncture for treating spinal deformation disease and femur necrosis, medicamental acupuncture and pyro-puncture were put on the list of national intangible cultural heritage in Juche 105 (2016).