‘Peace Village’ a metaphor for North Korean athletes
PEYONGCHANG, South Korea — From their hilltop checkpoint, the soldiers who guard South Korea’s border can see for miles across the Demilitarized Zone, to a small city in the distance on the north side.
This tidy collection of highrises and low-slung buildings is surrounded by agricultural fields. North Koreans call the place Kijong-dong, or Peace Village.
The multinational troops on the South Korean side have a different name for it. Propaganda Village. South Korea has long contended that Kijong-dong is a facade manned by the North Korean military.
Some of the buildings have their windows painted on, said Cmdr. Robert Watt of the combined Southern forces. Other tall structures appear to be shells; when night falls, light shines brightly in upper windows but is dim closer to the ground, suggesting there are no floors or walls inside.
Music blares from loudspeakers, drifting eerily across the winter-browned countryside. A towering flagpole rises high above.
North Korea created all this, Watt said, in hopes of persuading South Koreans to defect, as in: What a nice city. I’d like to live there.
Now that the 2018 Winter Olympics are in full swing about 100 miles away, the mystery surrounding Kijong-dong serves as a metaphor for the North Korean athletes who have come to Pyeongchang.
Twenty-two of them are competing in women’s hockey, figure skating and other sports. Critics have dismissed their presence as a publicity stunt by the North, but others have hoped they might offer a glimpse into a country the world knows so little about. warning.
“Please note that we may decline any of the questions that might make the athletes uncomfortable such as ones about politics or doping,” the moderator said.