Yanggu & Inje County, Gangwon Province were reborn as messengers of peace and life in addition to harmony through PLZ (the 2019 Peace and Life Zone Festival) which kicked off on Sep. 20, this year.

Diplomatic Corps. contributed to the spread of such messengers by taking part in its concerts & famtours organized The PLZ Festival Committee in partnership with its media partner NDNnews (www.ndnnews.co.kr) & its wing Korea Culture Ambassador Friendship Association.

Starting from EU Amb. Michael Reiterer who spoke his congratulatory remarks at Park Soo-geun gallery on the occasion of its official reception, Sierra Leone Amb. Kathos Jibao Mattai, Nicargua Amb. Wendy Carolina Palma De Beckford, former Ambs such as former ASEAN-Korean Centre Amb. Kim Young-sun, former Amb. Shin Soong-chull, & former Amb. Chung Tae-myeon were on hand in order to help such purposes in addition to Vice-Governor Chung Man-ho from Gangwon Province, YangGu county mayor Cho In-mook and former Justice Minister Gang Guem-shil including over 200 invited guests who flew from Seoul with 3 buses.

The other diplomatic guests included Mrs. Dinh Thi Tam Hien, Vietnam Investment counsellor couple, 1st secretary Mr. Vladimir Kashtanov couple from Russia Embassy, etc.

Upon arriving at Yanggu War Memorial Hall on 11:00 am last Saturday (Sep. 28th), visiting Diplomats Corps. were greeted by Artistic Director Mi Jung Im who founded the PLZ Festival as well as serves as prof. of Hanse University at the piano department and also from its festival dedicated officials.

Partita No.2 in d minor by J.S. Bach, Wind Quintet Op. 56 No.2 in g minor, Allegro by F. Danzi & Flute Quartet A Major, K.298 by W.A. Mozart graced warmly Mozart at Eulji Observatory.

Violinist Da Mi-Kim & Ensemble des Nations played such warm musics to welcome visiting Ambs & senior diplomats and after the welcome concert, mayor Cho In-mook from Yanggu County sincerely hoped that peace & life's wind initiated from here Yanggu would pave the way for the path of unification on the peninsula.

Followed Eulji Observatory tour provided visiting Ambs & Senior diplomats with an opportunity to see North Korea regions from another new angle compared with Yeonchun or Hwacheon where NDNnews & Korea Culture Ambassador Friendship Assocation organized its DMZ trips last year for the Seoul Diplomatic Corps.

Established in last 1988 by FKI(the Federation of Korean Industries) for the purpose of education, Eulji Observatory is the shortest distance with the North.

In the afternoon, DMZ Botanic Garden served as main venue for the main concert to herald the full-fleged start of the 2019 PLZ DMZ concert where also many deputy head missions from Diplomatic Corps. joined including El Bakkari from Morocco Embassy, Podvinskis Peteris Latvia Embassy, Igor Prelovs from Croatia Embassy etc. and Zamirbek Beishenaliev from Kyrgyz Embassy with other general diplomats families.

PLZ main concert was played with a theme, dubbed "Journey of Love that brings Wisdom" including La Flute enchantee by W.A.Mozart, My heart and more by Dong-jin Kim, Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48 by P.L.Tchaikovsky, Carmen Fantasy, Op.25 played by Vicace Festival Orchestra of festival character & Dami Kim and last but not least Spring in My Hometown and more played by Ensemble des Nations & Vivace Festival Orchestra.

DMZ Batanic Garden affiliated with Korea National Arboretum wants to be another patch of territory for the plants in the DMZ and the northern plants which face extinction, said its offcials who joined the concert.

Born out of the Korean Armistice Agreement, the DMZ(the Demilitarized Zone) is a military buffer zone that has in the middle of it the Military Demarcation Line sometimes referred to as the Armistice Line. The DMZ has become a healthy habitat for animals and plants, because only limited human traffic and artificial acts have been allowed in it. Especially, as it unfolds across the midriff of the Korean Peninsula, the DMZ is also a major ecological axis for the country.

PLZ's welcome dinner reception took place at the Park Soo-keun gallery where welcome speech by Arstic-Director Mi-jung Im, congratulatory speech by EU Amb. Michael Reiterer and last but not least toast remarks by mayor Cho In-mook from Yanggu county etc. followed.

EU Amb. Michael Reiterer pointed out: "The two Koreas must be united as about 40 years ago, EU member countries were divided separately, but nowadays they were reunited as EU member nations for their solidarity & EU peace", shouting 'peace' as his toast remarks.

The 2019 PLZ concert are continued until Oct. 5, this year including its Inje Mountain Village Folk Museum programs(9.29. Sun. 3 pm.), On One Fine Day in October(10.3 Thu. 3 pm at Park Soo-keun Museum), Our Lives program (10.4 Fri. 3 pm, at Park Soo-keum Museum) and last but not least PLZ-Connecting Peace and Nature with Future (10.5 Sat. 3 pm, at Park Soo-keun Museum).