The Korean Workers' Party Headquarters, Cheorwon (), also known as Nodongdangsa, is a three-story building formerly occupied by North Korea's ruling

Workers' Party of Korea The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), also called the Korean Workers' Party (KWP), is the sole ruling party of North Korea. Founded in 1949 from a merger between the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is ...

. It was initially situated in North Korea, but after the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, the building came under South Korean control. It is now located in

Cheorwon County Cheorwon County (''Cheorwon-gun'' ), also spelled Chorwon, is a county in Gangwon Province, South Korea. It is located right next to the North Korean border. History *Goguryeo – first named ''Moeuldongbi''. *Silla dynasty – name changed to ...

, Gangwon Province. The building was designated as a National Registered Cultural Property of the Republic of Korea No. 22 on 31 May 2002.

History

Cheorwon was a county formerly under North Korean rule and site of the provincial government office of Kangwon Province prior to the

. The origins of the building are unclear, as records indicate that it was built in early 1946, prior to the establishment of the

Workers' Party of North Korea The Workers' Party of North Korea () was a communist party in North Korea from 1946 to 1949 and was a predecessor of the current Workers' Party of Korea. It was founded at a congress on 28–30 August 1946, by the merger of the northern branc ...

(predecessor to the current

). Local residents were forced to contribute funds and may have been forcibly mobilised to complete the building, though other accounts state only 'zealous' party members participated in its construction to maintain secrecy. The headquarters commenced operations around 1946. Its original intended purpose remains unconfirmed, but oral accounts indicate that its walls were soundproof, and that it was possibly used for assemblies and meetings. During the five years of communist rule, the headquarters served as a prison for detained activists, many who were tortured and killed. Its jurisdiction also extended to Gimhwa,

Pyonggang P'yŏnggang County is a ''kun'', or county, in Kangwŏn province, North Korea. It borders Sep'o to the north, Ch'ŏrwŏn to the south, Ich'ŏn to the west, and Kimhwa to the east. Physical features A portion of the county is occupied by th ...

, and

Pocheon Pocheon (; ) is an landlocked, inland Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in northeast Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It covers 2 with a population of 160,176 people, according to the 2008 census. Pocheon lies between Seoul and the mou ...

. It may have been used as a base of operations when planning the attack on South Korea owing to its close proximity to the border. As the

settled into a stalemate, anti-communists were executed in the building prior to the North Korean withdrawal.

Live ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

and wire ropes were found in its

bomb shelter A bomb shelter is a structure designed to provide protection against the effects of a bomb. Types of shelter Different kinds of bomb Shelter (building), shelters are configured to protect against different kinds of attack and strengths of host ...

after the war, in addition to human bones. Cheorwon was the site of heavy fighting and completely destroyed during the war, with the headquarters being the only building in the county to survive. The area subsequently came under South Korean control and was located in the highly restricted civilian control zone of the

Korean Demilitarized Zone The Korean Demilitarized Zone () is a heavily militarized strip of land running across the Korea, Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in half. It wa ...

, allowing the former headquarters to be saved from demolition. The restrictions in the civilian control zone were relaxed in the 1990s and the former headquarters is now a tourist attraction. The building was designated as a National Registered Cultural Property of the Republic of Korea No. 22 on 31 May 2002. Peace prayers, concerts and the Unification Prayer Art Festival have been held at the site.

Structure

The headquarters was constructed on a hill and employed a mixture of socialist realism and

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

architecture to emphasise the ruling party's absolute authority. It was a three-storey reinforced steel structure, with bricks, lumber, and concrete used throughout the building, contributing to its sturdiness. The first floor consisted of two columns flanking the entrance hall, with a decorated arch situated above it. A wooden triangular roof may have once served as the ceiling. Only the first floor and external façade remains intact today, with the upper levels having collapsed during the war. The external façade is riddled with bullet marks and tank caterpillar markings are still present at the entrance.

Gallery

File:철원 노동당사 鐵原勞動黨舍 Rside beeniru.jpg File:철원 노동당사 鐵原勞動黨舍 rear beeniru.jpg File:철원 노동당사 鐵原勞動黨舍 rear1 beeniru.jpg

References

{{reflist Cheorwon County History of the Workers' Party of Korea 1946 establishments in North Korea 1946 establishments in South Korea 20th-century architecture in South Korea