Not unlike the situation in Taiwan, Modern Korean literature was established at the end of the 19th century when western countries and Japan invaded during their imperialistic expansion. It gradually established its literary direction during the 36 years of Japanese colonization and continuing national separation after restoration. Therefore, the national literary theory, primarily based on consideration of the plight of the people, has become a powerful force that drove the modernization of Korean literature in the 20th century. In Korea, the establishment and the development of an ethnic literary theory has changed with different temporal exigencies and historical vicissitudes faced by Koreans in different periods of time. For example, national literary theory during Japanese colonization searched for its direction from the opposition between class literature and nationalist literature; in the early years of restoration, amid an atmosphere of criticizing the past’s narrowly conceived class literature, national literary theory was based on the very nature of nationalism. In the 1960s and 1970s, the focus had turned to pure literature, committed literature, popular literature, labor literature and creative techniques stemming from realism, generating heated literary debates and confrontational discourses. The goals, direction and nature of national literary theory have gradually gained the attention of, and emphasis in, the field of Korean literature. But in the latter years of the 1980s, with the decline of socialist countries and the ensuing global development, it has suffered from the impact of post-modernism’s diminishing concern for grand narratives and concurrent turn to everyday matters. Therefore, national literary theory, which was based on overcoming the discrepancies of classes and nationalities, was faced with new challenges. This article will summarize the construction and foci of Korean naitonal literature through the nature of the contentions in each period. Furthermore, based on the national literary theory of Paik Nak-chung, a contemporary theorist, this article will introduce the core values and standards of Korean national literary theories. I hope that these introductions and observations will not only help us understand how Korean literature has accommodated temporal exigencies and historical vicissitudes, but also bring reference to the literature community in Taiwan, which works hard on searching for a common ground in ensuring self-contained subjectivity and identity.