After the 1953 Armistice, the American presence in Kunsan slowly disappeared and the town once again returned to subsistence farming and fishing as the primary sources of income. The 6175th Air Base Group maintained Kunsan Air Base in a caretaker status with few military personnel -- as an emergency base used primarily for aircraft evacuations from typhoons.
The pictures below are from the archives of Mr. Cheol-Kyun Shin, an internationally-recognized photographer residing in Kunsan. They show Kunsan as a poor country town and reflects the general condition of Korea as a whole.
One picture says a thousand words. In Mr. Shin's panoramic views of Kunsan from the top of Wolmyong Mountain shows denuded hills, mud houses with thatch roofs and narrow streets. There was Taehak-Ro (University Road) of today -- in fact, there wasn't even a "University" (Kunsan National University) to name the road after.
Acknowledgement: Special thanks to Mr. Cheol-Kyun Shin for providing the following photos of Kunsan from his archives. Mr. Shin is an internationally-recognized, award-winning photographer residing in the Kunsan area. His photographs have been published in a book, Shin Cheol-Kyun's Black & White Photo Album. For an excellent pictorial spread of Korea from the 1960s-1990s, visit Mr. Shin's website at Cyber Gallery.
 Panoramic view of Kunsan from Wolmyong Mountain looking towards Changhang -- Note the smoke from the smelter stack in Changhang. To the right Korean houses with thatched roofs. Also note how barren and void of trees the area was in the 1960s. Panoramic view from Wolmyong Mountain looking towards the old center of the city -- Note the Korean houses with thatched roofs at the base of what is now Wolmyong Park. To the right is the ferry station and inner port area. In the distance the river winds towards where the present Kumgang Estuary Dam is located.  Panoramic view from Wolmyong Mountain looking east towards the Iksan (Iri) -- To the left is the inner port area. Note all the houses with thatched roofs. Panoramic view from Wolmyong Mountain looking south-east towards Chonju. -- In the 1970s, the city expanded in a southerly direction following the new Taehaek-ro (University Road). The route followed the old road shown on the map leading across the rice paddies off to the middle-right of the photo. (This road was in existence from the 1920s.) In the distance on the right is what would be called "Gumho Town". Panoramic view from Wolmyong Mountain looking south towards Okku -- Over the hills are present-day Naundong. Note the Wolmyong reservoir (yuongi) to the right. Kunsan harbor looking towards Changhang's smelter smoke stack. -- Note the shallow-draft fishing junks in the harbor...a sight no longer seen. The familiar smoke from the smoke stack was a land mark sight. Though the smoke is now gone, the smoke stack above the Lucky-Kumsung (Goldstar) copper smelter still dominates the Changhang skyline. |
