According to some sources, Gojoseon was a kingdom formed by the union of three confederacies, or Samhan: Makjoseon (막조선, 莫朝鮮), Jinjoseon (진조선, 真朝鮮) and Beonjoseon (번조선, 番朝鮮).
The Five Ministries, or Ohga, included Dotga (pig), Gaega (dog), Soga (cow), Malga (horse) and Shinga according to their areas of east, west, south, north and center.
Generally, the succession system of the Supreme Dangun and the Vice-Dangun was said to be determined by heredity, and sometimes the ruler said to be succeeded by one of the Ohga, suggesting that the sovereign's power was not absolute.
[7] Shin says the prefixes Ma, Jin and Beon were borrowed from Chinese characters to represent the Korean language using the Idu system.
It is uncertain how long Makjoseon endured, but it is thought to have been conquered by Gijun when he fled from Wiman, and then changed the name of the state to Mahan — one of the confederacies of the later Samhan.
[10] According to Joseon Sangosa, the disintegration of the three Gojoseon started when people were disillusioned with the religion of the Samjoseon confederation, and decided to establish their own autonomous entities.
[11] Some Korean scholars point out that the basis of the story is from Shin's interpretation of the following line in the chapter "Treatise on Chosun" (朝鮮列傳) section of the Records of the Grand Historian that Shin introduced in his book Chǒnhu Samhan Ko ("A Study of the Three Hans in Sequence", or "An Inquiry into the Former and Latter Three Han States"; 前後三韓考): 自始全燕時嘗略屬眞番朝鮮.
On the collected annotations (集解) of the same section, Guang Xu (徐廣) who was a historian of Eastern Jin, illustrates that Jinbeon is also called Jinmak (眞莫).
In the Biographies of the Wuhuan, Xianbei, and Dongyi in the Book of Wei in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, a following detailed paragraph appears that differentiates Jin (辰) and Beon (蕃) which suggests the two entities were separate.