Peace House

Building in the Joint Security Area, Panmunjom, South Korea
Peace House
The Peace House, as seen from the House of Freedom, with the Sunken Garden in the foreground.
Korean name
Hangul
평화의 집
Hanja
平和의 집
Revised RomanizationPyeonghwaui jip
McCune–ReischauerP'yŏnghwaŭi chip

The Peace House (House of Peace or Home of Peace) is a venue for peace talks between North and South Korea. The building is situated in the Joint Security Area on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line bisecting the area. It is under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Command.[1]

Map of the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom. The Peace House is shown on the map as "Home of Peace"
  Military Demarcation Line
  Buildings under North Korean administration
  Under joint U.N./South Korean administration

The Peace House is a three-story structure built in December 1989, with construction completing on December 19, 1989. The floor layout, which adds up to 998 square metres (10,740 sq ft), is as follows:[2]

  • First floor: a pair of rooms used mainly for press conferences and lower-level meetings.
  • Second floor: dedicated, for the most part, to an elaborate conference room
  • Third floor: two rooms, one dedicated for luncheons and dinners

The building is intended for non-military purposes, with the most notable usage being the April 2018 inter-Korean summit.[3][4][5]

The building is equipped with closed circuit television and microphones, allowing real time audio and video monitoring of the facility at the South Korean presidential office in Seoul.

Notable usages

The building has served as a venue for the following events:

  • August 25, 2015: Kim Kwan-jin, South Korea's Chief of National Security Council, and Hong Yong-pyo [ko], South Korea's Minister of Unification, met with Hwang Pyong-so, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of North Korea's Workers' Party, and Kim Yang Gon, a senior official of the Workers' Party of Korea.[6]
  • January 15, 2018, Kwon Hyok Bong, director of the Arts and Performance Bureau in North Korea's Culture Ministry, and Hyon Song-wol, North Korea's deputy chief delegate for the talks, met with their South Korean counterparts to discuss inter-Korean participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics.[7][8]
  • April 27, 2018: April 2018 inter-Korean summit[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pyongyang, Seoul to hold working-level talks at Panmunjom tomorrow; second dialogue between two Koreas in a week". World Reuters. Firstpost. 2018-01-14. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  2. ^ a b Hu, Elise (April 26, 2018). "'The Peace House' Is All Set For Kim Jong Un's First Summit In South Korea". NPR.
  3. ^ "Panmunjom tour - Introduction to JSA". Tour Dmz. 1976-08-18. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  4. ^ Current time Timeline Multimedia FAQ Museum exhibit (2018-03-05). "The inter-Korean agreement and Pyongyang's offer to Trump | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists". Thebulletin.org. Archived from the original on 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  5. ^ Will Ripley (January 7, 2018). Talks between Koreas happening at Peace House (video). CNN.
  6. ^ Kim, Jack; Park, Ju-Min (August 25, 2015). "Summit by proxy: For rival Koreas, peace meeting was next best thing".
  7. ^ Lotto, Sofia (15 January 2018). "North Korea's All-Female Band Leader Hyon Song Wol Is the Only Woman Negotiating on Kim Jong Un's Behalf". Newsweek.com. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  8. ^ "Two Koreas to hold talks at Tongil-gak Monday : The DONG-A ILBO". English.donga.com. 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2018-03-16.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joint Security Area.
  • The official website of the Republic of Korea
  • Inter-Korean dialogue
  • Will Ripley (January 7, 2018). Talks between Koreas happening at Peace House (video). CNN.
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