Rare photos offer glimpse into DMZ of 1950s
This June 23, 2010, file photo shows the Demilitarized Zone near Cheorwon, Gangwon Province. The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch will host an event to present rare photos taken in the 1950s by Czechoslovakian members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC). / Korea Times
RAS event to feature items by Czech members of NNSC
By John Redmond
The Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch will host a lecture and presentation of rare photos taken in the 1950s by Czechoslovakian members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), at Somerset Palace on July 16.
Presented by journalist, performer, composer and musician Alex Svamberk the photographic records document not only the DMZ and nearby Gaeseong, but Incheon, Busan, Daegu, Gangneung and Gunsan in the South, as well as Manpo, Sinanju, Heungnam, Sinuiju, Chongjin and occasionally Pyongyang in the North.
The majority date to 1953/4 when inspections of the main entry ports were routine. Unfortunately this unique window of opportunity to document such rarely photographed places was soon to close. In 1956 inspections were suspended.
These unique photographs of Korea were sadly forgotten just as was the Czechoslovak involvement with North Korea in the 1950s. The communist regime in the former classified the operations as a state secret and the images were never published.
Usually they were seen only by a handful of family members and close friends and remained effectively lost for much of the last half of the 20th century.
They were unearthed only in 2008/09 through a project initiated and financed by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Despite the intervening years, it managed to save more than 4,000 black-and-white and color photographs and slides, as well as diaries, documents and other memorabilia collected from 21 former NNSC members and support staff and even 8-millimeter films.
This presentation will therefore mainly be based on presenting these rare photographs from both South and North Korea and showing the unedited footage captured by the Czechoslovakians. The presentation coincides with the exhibition of the best photographs which takes place at the Czech Center Seoul (https://seoul.czechcentres.cz) from July 3.
Svamberk graduated from a Czech machinery institute in 1985. Since then he has worked as a journalist, formerly in the biggest daily Mlada Fronta, later in music magazines Rock & Pop and Uni and for the last decade in the biggest news web Novinky.cz.
He usually covers culture, but he also sometimes covers foreign policy stories, following in the footsteps of his father, who was part of the Czechoslovak NNSC in Korea.
Due to his interest in oral history and micro history he started collecting documents of people who served in the NNSC.
He wrote two books of interviews with leading British and American punk and hardcore musicians “Nenech se zas Oblbnout” (Won't Get Fooled Again, 2006) and “No Future!” (2012).
The lecture will be held on the second floor Residents Lounge at Somerset Palace from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Admission is 7,000 won for non-members and free to members.