From the outside, the North Korean village of Kijong-dong looks like any other town of a wealthy country: brightly painted houses, schools, daycare, even a hospital. But on closer inspection with observation instruments, something strange seem to appear there.
Sitting in the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates North and South Korea, Kijong-dong is widely referred as the “Propaganda Village” by foreigners and “Peace Village” by North Korea, and it is believed by western countries to be a decoy for luring South Korean defectors.
Built in the two-and-a-half-mile wide DMZ that was set up in 1953 as an armistice to end the Korean War, the town apparently has 200 families who spend their days happily tending to farms, going to school, or swinging by the hospital for a check-up. This paradisiacal sight boasts an image of economic success.
However, observations from the South have suggested that Kijong-dong may be a fake and is devoid of human life.
The buildings may be actually concrete shells with no glass in their windows, electric lights operate on an automatic timer, and the only people in sight may be maintenance workers who sweep the streets to give the impression of activity.
The village of Kijong-dong is surrounded by extensive cultivated fields, with the North Korean government officially claiming it is a collective farm for its residents.
One mile from Kijong-dong, on the south side of the border, is the South-Korean village of Daesong-dong. Its few hundred unhappy residents live in an in-between state—as residents of the DMZ, they are exempt from taxes and compulsory military service, but these perks come at the price of their freedom. An 11 p.m. curfew is strictly enforced, and relocation is prohibited.
In the 1980s, the South Korean government built a 321.5-foot-tall flagpole in the city of Daeseong-dong to antagonize the North. This was quickly countered by North Korea, which built a 525-foot-tall flagpole in response. It was at the time the tallest in the world. Another big success of North Korea.
Until 2004, massive loudspeakers delivered DPRK propaganda broadcasts to the South that praised North Korea’s virtues and urged disgruntled soldiers and farmers to walk across the border.
When this approach missed to convince defectors as much as expected, the speakers began casting 20 hours a day of anti-Western messages, Communist operas and patriotic marching music. In 2004, both countries agreed to end their loudspeaker broadcasts to each other.
In any way, the case of the Kijong-dong village (compared to the claustrophobic and unsuccessful example of the South Korean village of Daesong-dong) is a lot of effort by DPRK government to show its best face to the more unfortunate citizens of South.
Sources:
The mysterious fake town on North Korea’s border
A Fake Village and a Colossal Flagpole: North Korea’s Bizarre Propaganda Methods