Vinalon, the polyvinylalcohol(PVA) synthetic fiber invented by Li Seung Ki(李升基, 1905-1996), has been praised in North Korea as an 'independent[Juche]' fiber, for several reasons. It touches like cotton, the traditional suit material in Korea; its inventor was Korean; limestone, its raw material is abundant in North Korea; and its first mass-producing factory, the '2·8 vinalon factory' at Heungnam was designed and built by the North Korean engineers. Without the appropriation of the colonial 'heritages', however, the industrialization process of vinalon could not have been achieved. Li made his early research in Japan, and thus many parts of the process of vinalon industry had already been developed when Li came back to Korea. Moreover, where the '2.8 vinalon factory' was built had been the nitrogen fertilizer plants, built and operated by the Japanese. But the North Korean were far from the passive heirs: the appropriation also changed the appropriated. The engineers, who formerly had worked for the existence of themselves, came to get the aim of the development of their own country; one of the candidate for the synthetic fiber technologies in Japan became the most efficient and effective way to construct independent national economy in North Korea; and the plants built and managed by the Japanese entrepreneur, exploiting Korean laborers, were changed to serve North Korean people as the biggest textile supplier. Taking these facts into consideration, the way North Korea appropriated colonial heritages during the industrialization of vinalon can be regarded as an example of the post-colonial development.