Kijong-dong explained

Kijong-dong
Native Name:기정동
機井洞
Native Name Lang:ko
Pushpin Map:North Korea
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in North Korea
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:Special city
Subdivision Name1:Kaesŏng-T'ŭkpyŏlsi
Subdivision Type2:Ward
Subdivision Name2:P'anmun-guyŏk
Subdivision Type3:ri
Subdivision Name3:P'yŏnghwa-ri

Kijŏng-dong, Kijŏngdong, Kijŏng tong or Kaepoong is reportedly a Potemkin village in P'yŏnghwa-ri,[1] Panmun-guyok, Kaesong Special City, North Korea. It is situated in the North's half of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Also known in North Korea as Peace Village,[2] it has been widely referred to as 'Propaganda Village' by those outside North Korea, especially in South Korean and Western media.[3] [4] [5] [6]

Kijŏng-dong is one of two villages permitted to remain in the 4abbr=onNaNabbr=on wide DMZ set up under the 1953 armistice during the Korean War;[7] the other is the South Korean village of Daeseong-dong,[8] 2.22km (01.38miles) away.

History

The North Korean government says the village contains a 200-family collective farm, serviced by a child care center, kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, and a hospital.[9] However, the South says the town is an uninhabited village built in the 1950s in a propaganda effort to encourage South Korean defection and to house the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) soldiers manning the network of artillery positions, fortifications and underground marshalling bunkers that surround the border zone.[6] [2] [10] [11]

The village features a number of brightly painted, poured-concrete multi-story buildings and apartments, many apparently wired for electricity. The town was oriented so that the bright blue roofs and multi-colored sides of the buildings next to the massive DPRK flag would be the most distinguishing features when viewed from across the border. Scrutiny with modern telescopic lenses, however, has led to the conclusion that the buildings are concrete shells lacking window glass or even interior rooms,[10] [12] with building lights turned on and off at set times and empty sidewalks swept by caretakers in an effort to preserve the illusion of activity.[13]

The village is surrounded by extensive cultivated fields, clearly visible to visitors to the North Korean side of the DMZ.

Flagpole

In the 1980s, the South Korean government built a 1000NaN0 tall flagpole with a 1300NaN0 flag of South Korea in Daeseong-dong[10] .

The North Korean government responded by building an even taller one, the Panmunjom flagpole, at 1600NaN0 with a 2700NaN0 flag of North Korea in Kijŏng-dong, 1.21NaN1 across the demarcation line from South Korea, in what some have called the "flagpole war". For over a decade, the flagpole was the tallest in the world.[10] In 2010, the flagpole became the second-tallest flagpole in the world at the time, after the National Flag Square in Baku, Azerbaijan at 1620NaN0.[10] [14] [15] It is now the seventh-tallest flagpole in the world, and the tallest supported one.

Propaganda loudspeakers

Massive loudspeakers mounted on several of the buildings deliver DPRK propaganda broadcasts directed towards the South.[10] Originally, the content extolled the North's virtues in great detail and urged disgruntled soldiers and farmers simply to walk across the border to be received as brothers.[16] As its value in inducing defections diminished over time, particularly as South Korea caught up with the North economically in the 1960s and 1970s,[17] the content was switched to condemnatory anti-Western speeches, agitprop operas, and patriotic marching music for up to 20 hours a day. For a period from 2004 to 2016, both North and South agreed to end their loudspeaker broadcasts at each other.[18] The broadcasts resumed after escalating tensions as a result of the January 2016 nuclear test.[19] On 23 April 2018, both North and South Korea officially cancelled their border propaganda broadcasts.[20]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: http://www.cybernk.net/infoText/InfoHumanCultureDetail.aspx?tid=CC060200029972. 2007-12-08. 평화문제연구소. Galhyeon-dong, Seoul. Korean. ko:기정동(機井洞)[트느피마을, 틀늪]. 북한지역정보넷 (North Korean Human geography). 2010-04-11.
  2. https://www.apkindirelim.com "APK İndirelim"
  3. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/dmz.htm "Korean Demilitarized Zone"
  4. Web site: http://www.tourdmz.com/02dmz/p3-2.php. ko:북한의 기정동 선전마을. TourDMZ.com. 2006-10-09. ko.
  5. News: Mansfield . Paul . 'This is Freedom Village,' said Sgt Manfull . . London . 1997-06-22 . 2009-07-05 .
  6. News: Tran . Mark . Travelling into Korea's demilitarised zone: Run DMZ . . London . 2008-06-06 . 2009-07-05 . Kijong-dong was built specially in the north area of DMZ. Designed to show the superiority of the communist model, it has no residents except soldiers..
  7. News: Kozaryn . Linda D. . Cohen: Economic Failure Plagues North Korea . . DefenseLink. . 1997-04-14 . 2009-07-05.
  8. News: Flack . T.D. . DMZ sixth-graders become graduates . . Pacific . Tokyo . 2008-02-19 . 2009-07-05 . 2009-06-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090611232350/http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52586 . dead .
  9. A Sightseeing Guide to Korea by Pang hwon Ju & Hwang Bong Hyok, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, DPRK. 1991
  10. Potts, Rolf. Korea's No-Man's-Land. Salon, February 3, 1999
  11. Sullivan, Kevin. Borderline Absurdity: A Fun-Filled Tour of the Korean DMZ . Washington Post Foreign Service, January 11, 1998.
  12. O'Neill, Tom. "Korea's DMZ: Dangerous Divide". National Geographic, July 2003.
  13. Web site: Silpasornprasit. Susan . Day trip to the DMZ: A look inside the Korean Demilitarized Zone . IMCOM-Korea Region Public Affairs Office, US Army . 30 January 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090330022530/http://imcom.korea.army.mil/imakoroweb/sites/local/news/020808_IMCOMK_DMZ.asp. 30 March 2009.
  14. News: Korea's DMZ: 'Scariest place on Earth' . 2007-10-23 . 2002-02-20.
  15. Web site: http://economy.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_blogview.asp?at_code=370439. ko:개성에 '구멍탄' 5만장 배달했습니다. economy.ohmynews.com. 2006-12-06. ko.
  16. Web site: Kijŏng-dong, North Korea « Daily Propaganda . Dailypropaganda.com . 2011-05-06 . 2012-02-21 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120301193929/http://dailypropaganda.com/2011/05/06/kijong-dong-north-korea/ . 2012-03-01 .
  17. http://upandgone.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/top-10-crazy-facts-about-kim-jong-il/
  18. News: Koreas switch off loudspeakers . BBC . 15 June 2004 . 7 May 2013.
  19. News: Korean loudspeakers_ What are the North and South shouting about_ – BBC News . . 12 January 2016 .
  20. Web site: Seo . Joshua Berlinger,Yoonjung . 2018-04-23 . South Korea stops blasting propaganda as summit looms . 2023-10-06 . CNN . en.