Are 朝鲜冷面 (Cháoxiǎn lěngmiàn) from Korea (North and South) or only North Korea? In Tianjin, sometimes we see 朝鲜冷面 (Cháoxiǎn lěngmiàn) for sale:



Breaking this down:


朝鲜 (Cháoxiǎn) = Korea or North Korea, depending on context
冷面 (lěng miàn) = cold noodles


YouDao says 朝鲜冷面 translates to "Korean cold noodles".

Question: Are 朝鲜冷面 from Korea (North and South) or only North Korea?
朝鮮冷麪 is just Korean cold noodles, not specifically from North or South Korea.



The confusion arises because 朝鮮 may be either translated as


Korea, as it is the traditional name for Korea which matches the Joseon Dynasty (大朝鮮國 or 朝鮮王朝);
North Korea, because this is what 朝鮮 refers to after the Division of Korea; the official name of the country is 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國 (Democratic People's Republic of Korea).


For anything to do with traditional culture/art/food etc., it is improbable that 朝鮮 means North Korea, although only context can make you certain of what it really refers to. Since cold noodles is a traditional food eaten throughout the whole of the Korean peninsula, 朝鮮冷麪 should be taken as (traditional) Korean cold noodles.

For disambiguation purposes, one may call North Korea as 北朝鮮 or 北韓 instead. Compare South Korea, which may be unambiguously called either 南韓 or 韓國; note that it is exceedingly rare to refer to South Korea with the name 朝鮮.

If one wants to unambiguously refer to Traditional Korea, one may use the archaic word 高麗 instead, which is where the English name Korea comes from.