PEACE FESTIVAL PROJECT AS CULTURE COMMODIFIED IN THE DMZ AREA, KOREA

Abstract

Tourism, because of its peculiar nature, depends much on security and safety at the destination. Likewise, Korea needs to assure concrete security and safety to develop tourism in particular. In new millennium, however, Korea has a major issue to be solved. That is to decrease the political tension between South and North so as to accelerate the reunification of the peninsula. In this context, the peace festival tourism project should be placed in the first priority since this will ease the strained political relations between South and North. This paper attempts to review the actual condition of the peace festival tourism project and to examine economic, socio-cultural and political impacts. To analyze the effects of the study, secondary data and information provided by the research & research agency, newspaper articles and the Bank of Korea were utilized.