“Potemkin” is the term given to buildings erected for the purpose of deception, to create a certain impression. Built by the North Korean government, Kijong Dong looks like an ideal town from afar, but all accounts point to it being a hoax of a place, with empty buildings that are merely shells made from poured concrete. Kijong Dong is a Potemkin landscape, as it exists in the DMZ for the purpose of propaganda. Kijong Dong was constructed to show the neighboring South Koreans the wonders that a communist state can bring even to the ordinary farmer. It is a utopia of sorts, in a country full of empty four-lane highways and monolithic concrete buildings cracked and crumbling even in the capital city Pyongyang, seen below.
Ed. Topos Article: “Kijong Dong - Potemkin Landscape” By Jessica Bridger 20 December 2011
Read more at: http://www.toposmagazine.com/blog/kijong-dong-potemkin-landscape.html
