Kijong-dong
village in P'yŏnghwa-ri, North Korea
Kijŏng-dong, Kijŏngdong, Kijŏng tong or Kaepoong is a Potemkin village in P'yŏnghwa-ri (Korean: 평화리; Hanja: 平和里), 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 (Korean: 평화촌; Hanja: 平和村; MR: P'yŏnghwach'on), it has been widely referred to as "Propaganda Village" (Korean: 선전마을; Hanja: 宣傳마을; RR: Seonjeon maeul) by those outside North Korea, especially in South Korean and Western media.
Kijŏng-dong is one of two villages permitted to remain in the 4 km (2.5 mi) wide DMZ set up under the 1953 armistice during the Korean War; the other is the South Korean village of Daeseong-dong, 2.22 kilometers (1.38 mi) 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. However, it is widely considered an uninhabited settlement built in the 1950s as part of a propaganda campaign to encourage South Korean defection. Some parts are used to garrison Korean People's Army soldiers manning a network of artillery positions, fortifications and underground marshalling bunkers along this part of the DMZ.
The village features a number of brightly painted, poured-concrete multi-story buildings. Its layout is oriented so that the buildings' bright blue roofs and multi-colored walls beneath Kijong-dong's massive DPRK flag and flagpole, can be clearly seen from the South Korean border. From the border, the main way of observing the village and surrounding ares is from the Dora Observatory, which provides binoculars to visitors to the DMZ.
As usual in North Korea, buildings in the village feature propaganda dedicated to the country's leaders. A mural to the Kim Family can be seen near the flagpole, reading "Great comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il will be with us forever".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kijong-dong” as village in P'yŏnghwa-ri, North Korea. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as village in P'yŏnghwa-ri, North Korea. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q494593. Authority coordinates are 37.945, 126.656. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kijong-dong”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kijong-dong primary sources, Kijong-dong archive and Kijong-dong research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Kijong-dong” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.