North installs screens around inter-Korean border building for apparent renovation work

North Korea has installed screens around its building in the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom to block it from public view, apparently for ongoing renovation work, military sources said on Monday.

The screens covering the Panmungak facility, located on the northern side of the Joint Security Area (JSA), were erected in April in what appeared to be part of renovation efforts, according to military sources with knowledge of the matter.

The North has put up screens around the building for renovation work in the past.

Panmungak, built in 1969, sits 80 meters (262.5 feet) north of the military demarcation line within the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. It directly faces South Korea’s Freedom House in the JSA.

The three-story Panmungak houses a guard command post and has the “pink phone,” a direct hotline between the North and the United Nations Command, which administers the 1950-53 Korean War Armistice Agreement.

The building has also served as a venue for key inter-Korean engagements in the past, including the 2018 summit between then-President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The place made headlines when Kim emerged from Panmungak to meet Moon at the border line.

Pyongyang has severed ties with Seoul since peace talks with the United States during the Moon administration collapsed without a deal. The regime declared in late 2023 that the Koreas were “two hostile states.”

Yonhap