Han Chinese build four commanderies to rule the peninsula as far south as the Han River, with a core area at Lelang (Nangnang in Korean), near present-day P'yongyang.

It is illustrative of the relentlessly different historiography practiced in North Korea and South Korea, as well as both countries' dubious projection backward of Korean nationalism, that North Korean historians will deny that the Lelang district was centered in Korea and place it northwest of the peninsula, possibly near Beijing.

Perhaps this is because Lelang is clearly a Chinese city, as demonstrated by the many burial objects showing the affluent lives of Chinese overlords and merchants.