Kijong-dong

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Kijong-dong
The Kijŏng-dong flagpole, flying the DPRK flag.
Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl:	기정동
McCune-Reischauer:	Kijŏng tong
Revised Romanization:	Gijeongdong

Kijŏng-dong (sometimes romanized as Gijeong-dong) is a village in Panmun-gun, North Korea. It is also called Peace Village (평화촌) in the north.^[1] ^[2] On the southern side of the DMZ however, it is known as Propaganda village (선전마을)^[3]. It is situated 1.8 kilometers from the South Korean village of Daeseong-dong, the only inhabited village in the southern side of the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

A guidebook published in the north states: "In this village located in the Demilitarized Zone is the Panmun Cooperative Farm embracing over 200 households. The village has a kindergarden, creche [day care], senior middle school and a people's hospital."^[4] At various times field workers and building workers are seen in Kijŏng-dong. However, many in the south believe that Kijŏng-dong was built within the DMZ purely for the purpose of propaganda. The village reportedly has no residents except soldiers. At night lights come on in some of the buildings, but they turn on in the same buildings every night at the same time.

The world's highest flag tower^[5] stands at the entrance of Kijŏng-dong (160 meters tall) flying a North Korean flag. This tower was not originally as tall as it is now, but when the flag pole in Daeseong-dong was extended, thus making it taller than the Kijŏng-dong pole, the North again quickly extended their pole taller in what some have called the “flagpole war” (깃대 전쟁).^[6]