SPACE June 2026 (No. 703)
The main entrance to the National Museum of Korean Democracy, which opened in June 2025. The M2 (Former Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office) can be seen in the background.
interview Kim Sungil Curatorial Affairs Department Director, Korea Democracy Foundation, Kim Youngchul Creative Director of the Opening Exhibition, Korea Democracy Foundation, Chung Hyuna Principal, DIA Architecture × Bang Yukyung
Completed in 1977 and designed by Kim Swoo Geun, the Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office is a symbolic site that preserves the scars of state violence from the era of military dictatorship. With ancillary facilities such as exhibition halls newly built around the Anti-Communist Interrogation Office, the National Museum of Korean Democracy opened in June 2025. Through the voices of three figures involved in transforming a negative heritage site once cut off from the outside into a public place – an architect, an exhibition director, and an operator – we examine the process of creating a space that commemorates democracy, its role, and its contemporary meaning.
The Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office, whose design was commenced by Kim Swoo Geun in 1976 and completed in 1977, was originally built with five storeys before being expanded to seven storeys in 1983. Although it operated under cover names such as the International Oceanic Research Institute, it became widely known as the Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office in 1987 when the Park Jongcheol torture death case was exposed. The fifth-floor investigation rooms, where the atrocities took place, were designed with narrow, elongated windows to prevent detainees from jumping out or escaping. Image courtesy of Korea Democracy Foundation
Bang Yukyung: I heard that there were many twists and turns before the National Museum of Korean Democracy was created around the Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office (hereinafter the Anti-Communist Interrogation Office). What happened during that period?
Kim Sungil: The Korea Democracy Foundation (hereinafter KDF) is an organisation established under a special law enacted by the National Assembly in 2001 with the purpose of commemorating Korea’s democratisation movement at the national level. Since ‘the construction and operation of the National Museum of Korean Democracy’ was KDF’s first principal project, we promoted the construction of the museum immediately after the organisation was formed. The project, which had drifted for more than 15 years while facing difficulties in selecting a site, entered a new phase when a new government came in after the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in 2017. The site was confirmed when President Moon Jae-in announced at the 31st Anniversary of the June 10 Democratic Struggle in 2018 that the former Anti-Communist Interrogation Office would be developed into the Democracy and Human Rights Memorial Hall, now the National Museum of Korean Democracy.
Bang Yukyung: For the creation and operation of the museum, an extensive preliminary investigation and public deliberation process was carried out. What was the outcome of this wide-ranging collection of opinions?
Kim Sungil: It can be explained through exhibition, education, and network. Through exhibition, we show the history of the democratisation movement and the sites of anti-human-rights violence committed by the state; through education, we pass on the core values and spirit of the democratisation movement to later generations. These are the two important axes of operation. Since South Korea is almost the only country among those liberated from colonial rule after World War II that developed industrialisation and democratisation simultaneously, a function of internationally publicising this history was also required.
Following the transfer of management and ownership of the Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office from the National Police Agency to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in December 2018, a design competition for the construction of the...
