To Yu-ho

Who is To Yu-ho?

To Yu-ho was a North Korean archaeologist and member of the National People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

To was born and raised in Hamhǔng. He earned a doctoral degree at Vienna University in Austria in 1935, was perhaps the first Korean archaeologist and among the first Korean academics to have received their training overseas. He married a German woman and returned to North Korea in the late 1940s. Do became a professor at Kim Il Sung University in Py'ǒngyang in 1947 and served as the director of a number of archaeological institutes through the 1960s. He also served in several capacities in the North Korean government, including as a representative in the Supreme People's Assembly in the early 1960s and in the National Assembly Standing Committee from the mid-1960s.

To was responsible for leading archaeological excavations at North Korean sites such as Kulp'o-ri, Ch'itam-ni, Odong, Allak, Ch'o-do, and Kungsan-ni. To's major monograph, Chosǒn Wonsi Kogohak, laid the groundwork for archaeological research in North Korea from the 1960s through the 1990s.