, the world's seventh-tallest, in height, flying a
flag of North Korea over Kijŏng-dong, near
Panmunjom. 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. A mural dedicated to
Kim Jong Un can be spotted as well, reading "Long live General Kim Jong Un, the sun of Korean
Songun". The village has been widely described as a
potemkin village. According to observers, windows appear to be either left unglazed or just painted onto exterior walls, and electrical lights on timers periodically turn on and off in some buildings. The buildings are said to be concrete shells that are maintained by caretakers in an effort to preserve the illusion of activity. Nonetheless, some limited civilian activity has been reported in the area by foreign journalists. A 2016 farming season report from the South Korean channel
MBC, made with footage from the
Aegibong Observatory near the border, was able to attest further activity in the village, such as children attending school. Laundry was also spotted hanging from the windows. However, the reporters noted the "very shabby and old" appearance of the buildings, and an "eerie and bleak" atmosphere. It is now the
ninth-tallest flagpole in the world, and the tallest supported one.
Propaganda loudspeakers Massive loudspeakers mounted on several of the buildings deliver DPRK propaganda broadcasts directed towards the South. As its value in inducing defections diminished over time, particularly as South Korea caught up with the North economically in the 1960s and 1970s, the content was switched to condemnatory
anti-Western speeches,
agitprop operas, and patriotic
marching music for up to 20 hours a day. The broadcasts resumed after escalating tensions as a result of the
January 2016 nuclear test. On 23 April 2018, both North and South Korea officially cancelled their border propaganda broadcasts. == Notes ==