"There's been talk lately about the Chinese-character and Korean-script signboards for Gwanghwamun. Look over there — Pyongyang's Daedongmun has two signboards hanging side by side. We can just hang two at Gwanghwamun too."
Yu Hong-june, director of the National Museum of Korea, made these remarks on the 4th at the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Danwon Kim Hong-do, Painting an Era," held at the museum's second-floor painting and calligraphy gallery in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Pointing to the "Pyeongan Governor's Banquet" painting on display, his comments are seen as an attempt to rekindle the recently stalled push to hang both Chinese-character ("光化門") and Korean-script ("광화문") signboards at Gyeongbokgung Palace's Gwanghwamun gate.
"Pyeongan Governor's Banquet" depicts an early 19th-century feast hosted by the Pyongyang governor near the Daedong River. Yu explained that Danwon Kim Hong-do did not paint the work himself, but rather that followers of his style painted it in the "Kim Hong-do style."
While the painting itself is significant, it also depicts Daedongmun — a gate that has recently been cited as a precedent in debates over adding a Korean-script signboard to Gwanghwamun.
On January 20 this year, at a cabinet meeting chaired by President Lee Jae-myung, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choi Hwi-young proposed a plan to "retain the existing Chinese-character signboard and additionally install a Korean-script signboard" at Gwanghwamun, presenting a dual-signboard arrangement.
As precedents for such dual displays, the ministry cited two cases: Pyongyang's Daedongmun (two Chinese-character signboards in different calligraphic styles) and China's Forbidden City (Chinese characters paired with Manchu script).
Back in 2024, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism had proposed replacing Gwanghwamun's current Chinese-character signboard entirely with a Korean-script version, but the plan fell through as the then-Cultural Heritage Administration, the managing authority, opposed it and public opinion proved unfavorable.
A closer look at the "Pyeongan Governor's Banquet" painting on display reveals that Daedongmun indeed bears two Chinese-character signboards. Both are in Chinese characters, but in different styles — one in regular script (haeseo) and the other in cursive script (choseo). Yu, a former head of the Cultural Heritage Administration (now the Korea Heritage Service), has publicly supported displaying both Chinese-character and Korean-script signboards at Gwanghwamun.
However, the only building in the region currently displaying duplicate signboards bearing the same name is Pyongyang's Daedongmun. Some counter that Daedongmun, a gate of Pyongyang's fortress, cannot be equated with Gwanghwamun of Gyeongbokgung Palace.
At a Kwanhun Club debate on February 23, Yu said: "There are growing calls to replace the current Chinese-character signboard with a Korean one, but removing the traditional one and replacing it with a Korean script version could invite many debates. There's no rule saying a building must have only one signboard. Pyongyang's Daedongmun has three signboards — two on the gate pavilion and one on the keystone." He added, "So I suggested keeping the Chinese-character signboard and adding a Korean-script one. Those promoting the Korean-script signboard have proposed using characters drawn from the Hunminjeongeum, and I think that's a good idea."
Yu's views on this matter appear to be long-held. In an interview with a media outlet in April last year, addressing the then-controversial proposal to replace the Chinese-character signboard with a Korean one, he argued for displaying both: "At this point in time, calls to hang a Korean-script signboard are entirely understandable. If so, just add one more Korean-script signboard. There's no reason there must be only one signboard. Tradition must evolve with the times to stay alive."
