About this page
Welcome to Dongmakgol (웰컴 투 동막골) is a 2005 film directed by Park Kwang-hyun and distributed by Showbox. It is set during the Korean War. Soldiers from both Koreas and the Allied forces end up together in a remote mountain village whose residents have no idea a war is going on. Jung Jae-young plays the North Korean officer and Shin Ha-kyun the South Korean officer, and the film follows what happens when enemies who were trying to kill each other have to share one village.
That village was never real. It is an open set that the production built on a hillside in Mitan-myeon, in the south of Pyeongchang County, Gangwon. The crew cut a road into the hillside and planted trees to make a place that feels cut off from the world — and then, unusually, the set was left standing. More than twenty years after the shoot, you can still walk into it, for free.
That is why this guide exists, and why the set is worth the trip. Most Korean film sets are torn down once shooting ends: Gangwon regional press reported in 2026 that most have been demolished, while this one survives as a village. Visiting Dongmakgol is not a walk past a plaque where something used to be. It is a walk through the place itself — the lanes, the houses and the hillside the film was built around — in the same mountain country where the story is set.
It is also part of a bigger picture. The film is one of the Korean War and DMZ stories we track in our DMZ in Korean film hub, which separates what was real from what was a set. Dongmakgol sits firmly on the set side of that line: a made-up village, built for a film, that outlived the production and became a place of its own.
The village set
The village of Dongmakgol, built as an open set for the film, is confirmed: Pyeongchang County, VisitKorea and the national and regional press all identify it as the film’s set.
Pyeongchang County describes an artificial village: a road cut into the hillside and trees planted for the film. That is what you come to see — not a single building, but a whole small village that was designed, planted and laid out for the camera, and then kept. Walk it slowly. The point of the set is the feeling of a place apart from the world: a mountain hollow where the war never arrived. The hillside setting does most of that work on its own, which is why the production chose it.
There is no admission charge. According to the county, you walk the last 150 m or so along a single lane closed to vehicles, so the approach itself is on foot — a short, quiet walk in, rather than a car park at the gate. Wear shoes you can walk a mountain lane in, and expect an outdoor, unsheltered visit: this is a hillside open set, not an indoor museum.
Gangwon regional press reported in 2026 that the opening scenes of The King’s Warden (2026), set in a village called Norugol, were filmed around the set. We label that link reported, because the reports trace back to one county release and a second independent source has not confirmed it yet. It is a reminder of why this set matters: a surviving village set is rare enough that new productions still come back to it.
Getting there
We found no official bus route to the set, and no official page that says a car is needed. Search “웰컴투동막골 세트장” on Kakao Map or Naver Map for the route on your travel day. The set is on a mountain road in the south of Pyeongchang County, so allow time for the drive.
Practical notes for the trip:
- Address for navigation: San 50-2, Yulchi-ri, Mitan-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon, as given by Pyeongchang County. Searching the Korean name of the set (웰컴투동막골 세트장) in a Korean map app is the most reliable way to get the current route.
- Last stretch on foot: The final 150 m or so is a single lane closed to vehicles, so you walk in. Leave extra time for the walk, and do not expect to drive up to the set itself.
- Base yourself in Pyeongchang: The set is in Mitan-myeon, in the south of the county, so Pyeongchang is the natural base for the visit. Plan it as a half-day trip rather than a quick stop: the mountain roads and the walk in both take time.
- Check before you go: We state no bus route and no opening hours here because no official page we checked gives them. Recheck the county page or a map app on your travel day rather than relying on a timetable from a blog.
Make a day of it
Mitan-myeon is also promoting trips that combine the set with Baengnyong Cave and the Yukbaekmajigi highland nearby. Neither of those is a filming location, but they sit in the same corner of the county and turn the set into a full day out: the film village in the morning, then a cave and a highland viewpoint. If you are coming from elsewhere in Gangwon, that combination is the sensible way to justify the drive into the south of the county.
How we checked this guide
Every claim on this page traces back to a named source, and we label how strong the evidence is:
- Confirmed means at least two independent sources agree. The set itself is confirmed: Pyeongchang County (its Mitan-myeon page and its tourism page), VisitKorea, Hankook Ilbo (2019) and Gangwon Domin Ilbo (2026) all identify this hillside in Mitan-myeon as the film’s set.
- Reported means one source, or sources that trace back to a single release. The King’s Warden link is reported: Gangwon regional press carried it in March 2026, apparently from one county release, and no second independent source has confirmed it.
- What we do not state, we say so. The address follows the county’s form (San 50-2, Yulchi-ri). No official page we checked gives a bus route or says a car is needed, so this guide gives neither — it tells you to check a map app on your travel day instead of guessing a route.
- Scope. This page covers only the set you can visit. The film is set during the Korean War; the village itself is fiction, and the set is an open set built for the film, not a real wartime village.
More filming locations like this
For other Korean War and DMZ films, and what was real and what was a set, see our DMZ in Korean film hub.
Sources
All sources for this guide
Accessed Sep 29, 2026 (Asia/Seoul) unless noted.
- Pyeongchang County, Mitan-myeon — Welcome to Dongmakgol film set
- Pyeongchang County tourism — Welcome to Dongmakgol
- VisitKorea — Welcome to Dongmakgol filming site
- Hankook Ilbo — Still Welcome to Dongmakgol after 14 years (Jun 3, 2019)
- Gangwon Domin Ilbo — The King’s Warden’s Norugol and the Dongmakgol set (2026-03)
- Gangwon Ilbo — The Dongmakgol set today
- Korean Movie Database (KMDb) — Welcome to Dongmakgol
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