[5] Byeonhan as a political grouping was also sometimes referred to by a calque of Byeon (弁) and Jin (辰) as Byeonjin with the ethnonym Han (韓) being used by its inhabitants, identical to that of its neighbours.

The Hou Han shu however identifies this with Byeonhan, stating that “their country is close to Wa, therefore they frequently have tattoos.”[9] The linguist John Whitman summarizes the situation as such: In fact, the texts indicate a more complex (and plausible) interrelationship between language, ethnicity, and protopolitical grouping.

[...] The Chinhan population lives intermixed with Pyŏnhan; the Chinese reporters struggle to describe the resultant demographic complexity.

[9]Byeonhan may have simply been a political description for decentralized polities south and west of the Nakdong River valley that were not formal members of the Jinhan confederacy.

[10] Byeonhan was internationally known for its production of iron,[11] which was also its main export good to the Lelang Commandery to the northwest, the Japanese archipelago,[11][12] and the rest of the Korean peninsula.