South Korean artist's masterpiece witnesses historic meeting
By Chen Shangwen
People's Daily app
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韩国画家、国民大学教授申璋湜。(4) 陈尚文摄 - 复件_副本.jpg

Shin Jang-sik (Photo: Chen Shangwen/People's Daily)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un met in the border village of Panmunjom between the two countries on April 27, 2018. In the meeting room on the second floor of the "Peace House" on the South Korean side of Panmunjom, Moon officially met with Kim and took a photo with him. Behind them, a picture entitled "From the Upper Eight Ponds overlooking Mount Geumgang."

Shin Jang-sik, who spent 25 years in finishing the painting, told the People's Daily in an exclusive interview that peace is not easy to come by, adding that he felt grateful and moved to see his own works placed on such an important occasion to praise hope. 

Shin, who was born in Daegu in 1959, is a well-known South Korean artist. Shin started collecting materials on Mount Geumgang in 1993 when he had never seen the mountain himself.  The painting was first exhibited in September, 2001. 

In Shin's own view, the reason why his work was selected as the background painting for the intern-Korean meeting was that the mountain carries an extraordinary significance in the minds of the two Koreas' people. 

The mountain was once considered a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation. The North side opened the mountain to South Korean tourists in 1998 but it has been off limits since 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by North Korean soldiers, Korea Times reports.