https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0793-9331
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ABSTRACT
This paper examines spatial practices in the everyday life of the villagers in a South Korean border village. Focusing on the Yugokri Unification Village in Cheorwon, the paper analyses the residents’ spatial actions as a lens to study how the villagers cope with the volatile border. It reveals highly intricate and discrete ways the residents use the space of the frontier village as a platform, despite high levels of control imposed by the state, for their struggles against the authoritarian vision by developing, augmenting and enhancing their spaces around them in their everyday life.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In the 3rd National Land Development Plan in 1992, South Korean planning authorities officially designated a ‘Border Area’ (Chŏpkyŏngjiyŏk) made up of 15 municipalities that is home to over 2,670,000 people. See Korean Statistical Information Service.
2 An inherently discriminatory appellation given to those residing in the Recovered Territory.
3 The two border infrastructures are an outcome of the North and South Korean collaboration following the June 2000 summit meeting between North and South Korean leaders. Their operation, at times of politico-military tension, was restricted and have not re-opened since 2016.
4 Although acknowledging the value of recent contributions from a wide variety of studies that analyse the inter-Korean division and conflict (Brady, Citation2008; Hong, Citation2000; Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, Citation2017; Kim, Citation2015; Jung et al., Citation2015; Kim, Citation2010; Kim, Citation2014; Park, Citation2017; Kim, Citation2013; Seo, Citation2015; Thomas, Citation2009), this article diverges from the primary content of those studies by examining the border as a lived space through the lens of Architecture and its associated spatial practices.
5 Drawing from a multitude of top-down planning policies and military protection acts, abundant research has indeed highlighted serious cases of infringement of the residents’ freedom of mobility, construction, land use and ownership. Amongst many, see Centre for Korean Prosperity (Citation2013), Research Institute for Gangwon (Citation2014); Park and Kim (Citation1996, Citation1997).
6 The decrease in number does not indicate that the villages have physically disappeared. Rather, they must be read in reference to those no longer considered as frontier villages as restrictions have been cleared following the decrease in the Civilian Control Area.
7 The two border infrastructures are an outcome of the North and South Korean collaboration following the June 2000 summit meeting between North and South Korean leaders. Their operation, at times of politico-military tension, was restricted and have not re-opened since 2016.
8 Young Kyu Kim interview, 16 July 2015.
9 Also, a presidential decree on 24 September 1953 preventing migration to city centres (such as Seoul and Busan) made it extremely difficult for subokmin to move elsewhere.
10 Hee Suk Lee interview, 21 August 2015.
11 Yugok-ri resident interviews, 7–8 July 2015.
12 Suk Ho Ahn interview, 9 July 2017.
13 Suk Ho Ahn interview, 9 July 2017.
14 Yugok-ri resident interviews, 7 July 2017
15 Hee Suk Lee interview, 21 August 2015.
16 Hee Suk Lee interview, 8 July 2017.
17 Yugok-ri resident interview, 8 July 2017.
18 Yugok-ri resident interview, 9 July 2017.
19 This was largely due to the state’s preference for monocropping who used subokmin’s rice yield as a measure of taxation. This left the residents largely vulnerable in times of famine. Yugok-ri resident interviews, 8–9 July 2017.
20 Yugok-ri resident interview, 9 July 2017.
21 Yugok-ri resident interviews, 8–9 July 2017.
22 Yugok-ri resident interviews, 21–23 August 2015.
23 Yugok-ri resident interviews, 22 August 2015.
24 Hee Suk Lee interview, 21 August 2015.
25 During the interviews, residents complained about their north-facing windows and front porch instead of south-facing windows that would have allowed more light into the house. Some also complained about the materials such as concrete block walls being poor insulators during winter and the slate roofs conducting too much heat during summer.
26 Such misinterpretation of environments can also occur in other fields. For example, the interpretation of the rock paintings of the San of Southern Africa and of the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe was greatly hindered by looking for the order found in Western art. For example, see Lewis-Williams (Citation2003).
27 Yugok-ri resident interview, 21 August 2015.
28 This should not be confused with the collective struggle as in group actions. Instead, I am addressing the residents' individual struggle with a common goal.
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Alex Young Il Seo
Alex Young Il Seo is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, and an affiliated researcher in the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research at the University of Cambridge. He holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Cambridge.