-All Excellencies, Madames and Senior Diplomats from the Seoul Diplomatic Corps. are cordially invited!

2019 Peace and Life Zone Music Festival

The Korean Demilitarized Zone, a 248 km long and 4 km wide strip of terrain, is still considered by many a tragedy of the Korean nation and a symbol of the Cold War. Paradoxically, as no civilians were permitted to enter its land, the Korean DMZ also became one of the rare areas of the world where its nature and ecology remains untouched. For that reason, the Korean government implemented a policy that would transform the tense military zone into an area of peace and ecology.

To join that effort, the Music for One Foundation, together with a team from the UN Orchestra of Geneva, has been holding music festivals for recent years at the DMZ. The Inje and Yanggu Counties of Kangwon Province, the most mountainous and remote area of the South Korean hinterlands, was picked as the ideal location to hold the festival. The 2019 festival will be held at interesting venues; music of 'peace’ will be played at the mountain-top of the DMZ Observatory, and music of 'life (ecology)', a bigger concert, will be held on the lawn of the National DMZ Botanical Garden located within the Punchbowl (or Haean Basin), where one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Korean War took place.

More importantly in partnership with its media partner NDNnews(www.ndnnews.co.kr) & Korea Culture Ambassador Friendship Association, the Music for One Foundation invites Excellencies & Madames from the Seoul Diplomatic Corps. including Senior Diplomats from each embassies based in Seoul to the 2019 Peace and Life Zone Music Festival including Yanggu County DMZ tour etc. We are pleased to invite all Korean residents and foreign visitors to the ‘2019 Peace and Life Zone Music Festival’ to celebrate the abundant ecology preserved at the DMZ, and to uphold the continuing peace that bridges the two Koreas.

◆ Program (Sat. 28 Sep., 2019)

It will take around 3 hours by car from Seoul to the DMZ Festival area. If you want to stay Friday or Saturday nights to have more relax time, we will provide local hotels free for your

family. For those in need of transportation, there will be a bus departing Seoul on Saturday morning in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel fountain.

11:00-12:00: Eulji Observatory (just on the mountain-top DMZ)

ㅇ Observation of DMZ and North Korean side

ㅇ Small string concert for peace

12:30-14:00: DMZ Peace-life Valley

ㅇ Relax time and walking

ㅇ Luncheon

15:00-16:00: National DMZ Botanical Garden

ㅇ Main Concert of the United Nations Orchestra from Geneva with Korean musicians on the open-air lawn of the Garden

- Co-hosted by Governor of Kangwon Province, and Ms. Kang Kum- sil (former Minister of Justice and current President of the Earth and Humans Forum)

17:00-18:00: Park Soo Keun Museum

ㅇ Short tour of the famous Korean painter's hometown museum

ㅇ Buffet-reception

□ Music for One Foundation was established by Ms. Im Mijung, pianist and Professor at Hanse University in 2005 with wishes to make two Koreas one, and make the world a united one.

□ Former Minister of Justice Kang Kum-sil established the Life Forum(currently “People for Earth Forum” years ago, continuing various activities for the sake of all kinds of life and nature preservation.

□ Conductor Antoine Marguier and members of the UN Orchestra Geneva annually participated in the PLZ Music Festival with great interest for peace on the Korean peninsula.

□ Gangwon Province, Inje County, Yanggu County, and the Korea National Arboretum fully support the PLZ Music Festival as part of facilitating peace and ecosystem preservation in both Gangwon Province and the Korean peninsula.

*Participation inquiry: Media partner NDNnews at (02)3482-3114