Kim Ill Sungs place

There is a lot of history here in Sokcho. A little known fact is that the town I live in is actually above the thirty eighth parallel. The 38th parrallel is actually quite famous as the dividing line between North and South Korea, so in reality, I am actually above it.

After the war, when the cease fire line was drawn, North Korea wanted more territory on the west side of the peninsula and, as a trade off, South Korea was given the land that I know call home, Gangwon-do.

So why the little history lesson?

Because the place where I live is incredibly scenic, and until 1953, part of North Korea, the Great Leader, Kim Ill Sung, the leader of North Korea until his untimely death in 1994, had his summer villa just a few miles north of my apartment and this is where I took these pictures.

The great mans villa is a castle like house high on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. It was orignally built by an English missonary in the 1930's and was taken over by the "Kimmer" after the Second World War. While he only visited the home a few dozen times before the Korean War, it is now a monument and museum to the trials and tribulations of the North/South conflict.

Pictures

1. The sign says "On this spot in August of 1948 the leader of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Kim Jong Ill sat with his brothers"

2. The Great Leaders bedroom and some of his belongings

3. The view from the great mans rooftop terrace twoards the ocean

4. Another view from the same spot looking at the mountains.

5. The picture that accompnies the sign in picture one (this is what the arrow at the bottom of picture one is pointing at.