Gijeong-dong
Encyclopedia
Kaesong
Kaesŏng is a city in North Hwanghae Province, southern North Korea , a former Directly Governed City, and the capital of Korea during the Koryo Dynasty. The city is near Kaesŏng Industrial Region and it contains the remains of the Manwoldae palace. It was formally named Songdo while it was the...
-si, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. It is situated in the North's half of the Korean Demilitarized Zone
Korean Demilitarized Zone
The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel on an angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and...
(DMZ). Also known in North Korea as Peace Village , it has been widely referred to as Propaganda Village by those outside North Korea, especially in Western and South Korean media . Kijŏngdong is one of two villages permitted to remain in the 4-kilometer-wide (2.5 mi) DMZ set up under the 1953 armistice suspending the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
; the other is the South Korean village of Daeseong-dong
Daeseong-dong
Daeseong-dong , South Korea, is a town in South Korea close to the North Korean border. It lies within the Korean Demilitarized Zone . The village is about one mile south of the Bridge of No Return towards the North and 7.5 miles from the city of Kaesong, North Korea.Daeseong-dong belongs...
, 2.22 kilometres (1.4 mi) away.
History
The official position of the North Korean government is that the village contains a 200-family collective farm, serviced by a childcare center, kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, and a hospital. However, observation from the South suggests that the town is actually an uninhabited Potemkin villagePotemkin village
Potemkin villages or Potyomkin villages is an idiom based on a historical myth. According to the myth, there were fake settlements purportedly erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigory Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787...
built at great expense in the 1950s in a propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
effort to encourage South Korean defection
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
and to house the PRK soldiers manning the extensive network of artillery positions, fortifications and underground marshalling bunkers that abut the border zone. Though no visitors are allowed, it is the only settlement in North Korea within direct eye- and earshot of the Korean DMZ.
The village features a number of brightly painted, poured-concrete multi-story buildings and apartments, many apparently wired for electricity – these amenities represent an unheard-of level of luxury for any rural Korean in the 1950s, north or south. The town was oriented so that the bright blue roofs and white sides of the buildings next to the massive DPRK flag
Flag of North Korea
The flag of North Korea was adopted on September 8, 1948, as the national flag and ensign. The red star of Communism can be seen on this flag on a white disc. The flag was adopted in 1948, when Northern portion of Korea became a Communist state. The traditional Korean flag was red, white, and blue...
would be the most distinguishing features when viewed from across the border. Scrutiny with modern telescopic lenses, however, reveals that the buildings are mere concrete shells lacking window glass or even interior rooms, with building lights turned on and off at set times and empty sidewalks swept by a skeleton crew of caretakers in an effort to preserve the illusion of activity.
Until 2004, massive loudspeakers mounted on several of the buildings continuously delivered DPRK propaganda broadcasts directed towards the south. Originally the content consisted of extolling the North's virtues in great detail and urging disgruntled soldiers and farmers to simply walk across the border to be received as brothers. Eventually, as its value in inducing defections proved minimal, the content was switched to blaring, condemnatory anti-Western propaganda speeches, Communist agitprop
Agitprop
Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....
operas, and patriotic marching music at high volume for up to 20 hours a day.
In 1980s, the South Korean government built a 98.4 m (323 ft) tall flagpole with a 130 kilograms (287 lb) flag of South Korea
Flag of South Korea
The flag of South Korea, or Taegeukgi has three parts: a white background; a red and blue taegeuk in the centre; and four black trigrams, one in each corner of the flag...
in Daeseong-dong
Daeseong-dong
Daeseong-dong , South Korea, is a town in South Korea close to the North Korean border. It lies within the Korean Demilitarized Zone . The village is about one mile south of the Bridge of No Return towards the North and 7.5 miles from the city of Kaesong, North Korea.Daeseong-dong belongs...
. The North Korean government responded by building a taller one at 160 m (525 ft) with a 270 kg (595 lb) flag of North Korea
Flag of North Korea
The flag of North Korea was adopted on September 8, 1948, as the national flag and ensign. The red star of Communism can be seen on this flag on a white disc. The flag was adopted in 1948, when Northern portion of Korea became a Communist state. The traditional Korean flag was red, white, and blue...
in Kijŏng-dong, only 1.2 km (0.745647283979768 mi) west of the border with the South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, in what some have called the "flagpole war". The flagpole was the second tallest in the world at present, after the flag of Azerbaijan
Flag of Azerbaijan
The flag of Azerbaijan is the national flag of Azerbaijan. It consists of an horizontal tricolour of blue, red, and green, with a white crescent and an eight-pointed star centered in the red band. The blue band refers to the nation's Turkic heritage, the red stands for progress, and the green...
in Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
at 162 m (531 ft). Both flagpoles have recently been topped by the Dushanbe Flagpole in Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
, at 165 m (541 ft).