ARCH OF REUNIFICATION

Photographic Series: North Korea, 2017 The Arch of Reunification, inaugurated in 2001 south of Pyongyang, once spanned the broad lanes of the Reunification Highway, a concrete emblem of hope and ideological aspiration. Dedicated to Kim Il Sung’s proposals for national reunification—the Three Principles of National Reunification, the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo, and the Ten-Point Programme—the arch bore witness to the persistent dream of a divided peninsula. Rising 30 meters above the highway, it became both a literal and symbolic gateway, appearing on postage stamps and in the visual imagination of North Korea. Though dismantled in January 2024, the monument lingers in memory as an architectural testament to aspiration, ideology, and the delicate interplay between monumental form and national narrative.