Indigenous Groups

There are no known indigenous groups in Korea, because the inhabitants of the Korean Peninsula have been people who emigrated from their mainland which surrounds the area. They are merely emigrants and not indigenous tribes. However, I will give you a slight insight as to how the Korean Nation came about and was formed. Hopefully, you would be able to see a linkage between this and the cultures and traditions of Korea.

The Korean people trace their origins to the founding of the state of Gojoseon (also known as Old Joseon). Gojoseon rose on the banks of the Taedong River in the north-western corner of the Korean Peninsula and prospered as a civilization possessing a code of law and a bronze culture. As mentioned earlier, the citizens of the Gojoseon state then were probably emigrants from neighbouring cities, states and prefectures. During that period, the rising feudal state of the Yen in Northen China threatened the growth of Gojoseon and forcefully pushed back the Gojoseon territories to the Ch’ongch’on River. After which, the Yen state fell to the Qin state, and the Qin dynasty replaced by the Han. China (during the Han Dynasty) attacked Gojoseon afterwards and destroyed it as a political entity.

In the early Common Era, the Three Kingdoms (Silla, Goguryeo, Baekje) conquered other successor states of Gojoseon and came to dominate the Korean Peninsula. After tumultuous years of war between the Three Kingdoms, its successor states and the Mongols, it finally came to a halt and peace was restored. In 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty, and this marks the real beginning of the Korean Nation.

This was referenced from: http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/