By 1916 its founder Samuel Austin Moffett was in disagreement over practical matters with another teacher, James Scarth Gale.
In 1938, during the Japanese occupation of Korea, the seminary had been temporarily closed down after students defied orders to bow to Shinto shrines.
When its funds ran out in 1995, the Korean Methodist Church (KMC) of South Korea assumed a share of its financial responsibilities.
[4] Samuel Austin was motivated to found the seminary in Pyongyang because the city had been badly damaged in the First Sino-Japanese War.
The Japanese occupiers demanded that students of the seminary would bow to Shinto shrines, something that they could not agree to.
[3][13] In 1972, the seminary was reopened and assumed by the government-controlled Protestant body Korean Christian Federation (KCF).
In April 1999, the Korean Methodist Church (KMC) of South Korea offered to fund the seminary to secure the continuation of its operation.