Typhoon Observatory

Taepung Observatory was established on December 3, 1991 by the Invincible Taepung Unit. It is located on the highest peak of Bikki Mountain in Jung-myeon, approximately 65km from Seoul and 140km from Pyongyang. Initially, the southern and northern limit lines were set at a point 2km from the Military Demarcation Line, but after North Korea installed barbed wire near the Armistice Line in 1968, South Korea partially installed barbed wire in 1978. Taepung Observatory is located 800m from the Armistice Line and 1,600m from a North Korean guard post, and is famous as the observatory closest to North Korea along the 155-mile Armistice Line. At Taepung Observatory, there are churches, a cathedral, a statue of the Virgin Mary, a Buddhist temple, and a bell pavilion where ROK soldiers can hold religious gatherings. There is also a memorial for displaced people who left their hometowns in the North, a war memorial for the Korean War, and a monument for the boy tank soldiers who fought in the 6.25 War. The exhibition hall displays daily necessities and household items recovered from the Imjin River Pilsung Bridge, located 2km from here, as well as some infiltration equipment used by armed spies who infiltrated dozens of times since the armistice.