STEP INSIDE A NORTH
KOREAN LIVING ROOM
The People’s Museum of North Korea is an award-winning exhibit from Toronto that has welcomed over 7,500 visitors and reached more than 3 million people online.
This year, our exhibit focuses on Divided Families. Divided Families represent one of the longest-lasting human tragedies born from the Korean War. The separation of Korea in the war's aftermath, coupled with decades of transnational repression, has torn families apart, leaving deep emotional and physical scars that endure today.
This exhibit captures the deeply personal impact of this separation through the recreation of two living rooms—one from North Korea and one from South Korea. These spaces are more than just rooms. They symbolize the starkly different lives shaped on each side of the border and how families remember their loved ones across the divide. This year's theme, “The Story of Divided Families,” allows us to examine the line between two worlds, with each room’s ordinary objects telling stories of separation that span decades and continents.