For whatever reason, the fact that Kim Jong-il’s childhood home is open to public viewing was worth an article from the Associated Press:

This small stone villa perched among fragrant pine trees is about as close as most people can get to North Korea, in more than one way. It is only a few kilometres away from the border, and it was the childhood home of the boy who grew up to become the leader of the North.

Kim Jong Il was six years old when his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, took ownership of the house known as “The Castle” near scenic Hwajinpo Beach. When the Korean War ended in 1953, the border between the Koreas was redrawn, and the villa wound up in the South. [Kim Hyung-jin - Associated Press]

I visited the villa after it was restored and opened to the public three years ago.  The villa is located in an extremely scenic location on a hill overlooking Hwajinpo Beach on Korea’s East Coast not to far from the Demilitarized Zone.

Here is a view of the villa from the parking lot at Hwajinpo:

Here is what the villa looks like from up close:

It is actually a pretty nice building and quite large in size. Considering the timeframe this home would have definitely been the height of luxury back in 1940′s Korea.

The article goes on:

Today, the villa is a tourist site, and South Korea is planning to expand tourism on its side of the border. The South Korean government has encouraged tour operators to dream up projects such as ecological parks showing off the rare wildlife flourishing in the demilitarized zone, a four-kilometre-wide buffer between the Koreas. A sprawling $34 million US Korean War museum just north of Kim’s former villa is scheduled to open in March. Elsewhere, tourists can peer at North Korea through telescopes.  (….)

Some 800 tourists visit the former Kim home every day. Reopened after a refurbishment three years ago, the villa displays photos of Kim Il Sung and documents chronicling his life and modern Korean history.

They actually did a good job with the refurbishment of the house.  The inside is completely restored and has many displays of artifacts from the Kim family that were found in the house:

Here is the bed that Kim Il-sung used to sleep in:

Not everyone is happy about the restoration of the home though:

Not all the tourists are peaceful. Visitors scratched out Kim Jong Il’s face from a childhood photo, and activists threatened to blow up the building to protest against his bid to build nuclear bombs.

One tourist shook his head in disgust at the photos documenting a war that claimed millions of lives and left the Korean peninsula split in the middle.

“I can’t understand why we should retain this villa,” said Jo Dong-hui, an 80-year-old Korean War veteran from the town of Gimpo, west of Seoul. “I’m seeing many old pictures of Kim Il Sung, and that reminds me of the Korean War. I barely escaped death many times back then.”

Museum officials say their aim is not to glorify Kim Il Sung but to educate tourists about Korea’s complicated modern history.

“Some students don’t even know who started the Korean War,” said Jeon Sun-bok, a 62-year-old museum lecturer who lost both of her parents during the war. “I want to tell people about the war’s painful memories and explain that such a tragedy should not take place again.”

Designed by a German architect and built in 1937, the two-storey house with its turreted roof sits halfway up a hill, with a bird’s eye view of the sea below. It first served as a vacation home for foreign missionaries.

Here is the view from the turreted roof of Hwajinpo Beach:

Kim Il Sung took over the building after Korea won independence from Japan in 1945 and used it for vacations. Photos from the late 1940s show a chubby-faced Kim Jong Il seated on the steps outside the villa with Korean friends and a Soviet playmate.

Here is the picture of Kim Jong-il that the article is referring to:

Even ruthless dictators were once young cute kids.

In 1950, just a couple of years after that photo was taken, his father’s army launched a surprise attack on South Korea. The attack ignited the Korean War, which ended three years later in a stalemate.

For decades, South Korea’s military used the villa as a summer house. In 1999, under a government seeking to reconcile with the North, officials restored the house and opened it to the public.

In 2000, then South Korean culture minister Park Jie-won visited North Korea and Kim Jong Il. Park handed Kim an album of photos from his father’s villa.

“He first pretended not to recognize it,” said Park, now an opposition legislator. “But he later spoke to me about playing there as a child.”

Interestingly enough Kim Il-sung’s summer villa is located near the summer villa of South Korea’s first President and arch enemyof the Kim family, Syngman Rhee.  Both of these homes are definitely worth checking out if in the area.  Without a doubt Kim’s old villa is much nicer then the simpler villa that Rhee called home in the summer time.

Here are directions and additional information for visiting Hwajinpo:

From Sokcho to Hwajinpo Beach: Take bus 1-1 outside the intercity bus terminal. 4,000 won, which takes one hour.

Hwajinpo Beach to Kim Il Sung’s residence: follow the main road, cross the bridge and go straight. Turn left at the crossroads and walk for 5 minutes. 20 minutes total on foot.