The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History Reorganizes The Korean War Exhibition Sections

Date Aug 09, 2022

The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History (Director NAM Heesook) reconstructed and reorganized the Korean War exhibition of the permanent exhibition hall and reopened to visitors.

The History Gallery, the permanent exhibition room of the Museum of Korean Contemporary History, recently faced criticism from the National Assembly, media, and visitors in that it did not presented contents in a balanced way, having a possibility of triggering controversy for biases, distortions, and errors. For example, during the Korean War at the time of North Korean occupation of Seoul in 1950, the first page of the Liberation Daily (July 10, 1950), which propagated the cause of the war as an invasion of North Korea, was exhibited without sufficient explanation of the overall context, which visitors thought far from the objective facts.

Accordingly, the Museum temporarily closed the exhibition section of the Korean War on June 25 this year, ahead of the 72nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. After the short close, there was the overall review of the exhibitions and displayed contents. The exhibition was re-furnished and reconstructed to show the flow of war at a glance based on historical facts, and it was re-presented to visitors from the day of the Armistice Agreement was signed. <See attached>.

In the future, the Museum plans to reorganizes by phase after reviewing the contents of the exhibition, reflecting comments received from various circles based on achievements and reflections of industrialization and democratization in our modern history.

Director NAM of the Museum of Korean Contemporary History said, “The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History aims to present a balanced exhibition of our modern and contemporary history based on historical facts. Through this reorganization, we plan to present exhibition that faithfully meets the historical facts and provide correct memory of our people.”