First published in 1923 as the March 1 Newspaper, it changed its name to Sŏnbong, then to Lenin Kichi in 1938, and finally to Koryo Ilbo after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
It was also for decades the only Korean-language newspaper with nationwide availability in the Soviet Union and a significant promoter of the literature of Koryo-saram, during a period when regional languages were suppressed by the government.
According to several sources, the newspaper had an August 1922 predecessor published in Anuchino, Primorsky Krai called either the March 1st Newspaper[2][1][b] or Red Flag (붉은 기), but scholar and former reporter for Koryo Ilbo Kim Byeong-hag is skeptical of these claims.
[3] The predecessor (if it existed) and the eventual actual paper were published in response to the violent suppression of the 1919 Korean March 1st Movement by the Empire of Japan.
[7] Like other Soviet newspapers of the time, Sŏnbong was managed by the government, and local Communist officials had control over the staff and content of the paper.
[9] He was born in Seoul and was a lifelong Communist, independence activist, and advocate of Koryo-saram socialist literature.
[14] During the 1930s, large-scale political purges took place in the Soviet Union, which intensified toward the later part of that decade with the nationalities deportations.
[1][17] The staff who survived were relocated to Kyzylorda (now in Kazakhstan), where they began publishing an unofficial temporary newspaper.
[4] It is allegedly the first Korean newspaper to use horizontal, left-to-right type, as most others at the time wrote vertically and right-to-left.
[22] The staff appealed for more space for articles, higher publishing frequency, and larger circulation for years.
After Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, the Kichi began publishing more literature and were allowed national circulation on 1 January 1954.
[32] The paper had benefited from acquiring personnel from Sakhalin and North Korea until the late 1960s, but this did not halt the decline.
[36] It changed its name to Koryo Ilbo (meaning "The Daily Goryeo") on 31 December 1990[34] and published its first edition under the new name on 2 January 1991,[37] right around the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
[1] Leadership turned over frequently,[24] and many employees left to take opportunities abroad, especially to South Korea.
[40] By 1994, circulation briefly recovered to around 4,500 copies,[39][1] but publication frequency decreased to once per week, which it maintains as of April 2023[update].
[43] In the late 2000s, it stopped publishing literature, especially after the retirement of one of the last major Koryo-saram authors, Chŏng Sangjin.
[46] Around 2018, the paper had fewer than 10 employees,[47][28] and there has usually only been one Korean-language reporter since the early 2000s, namely Sakhalin-born Nam Gyeong-ja (남경자) as of 2019[update].
[49] While the paper is hopeful it will continue publishing,[1] scholars like Kim Byeong-Hak are doubtful of its long term prospects.
[2] In 1988, it received the Order of Friendship of Peoples award from the Soviet government on the 50th anniversary of the newspaper's change to Lenin Kichi.