N. Korea-invested museum opens in Cambodia’s Siem Reap city

PHNOM PENH, (PNA/Xinhua)—After five years of construction, the USD24 million Angkor Panorama Museum, funded by North Korea, opened in northwest Cambodia’s Siem Reap city, a local English newspaper reported on Monday.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister Sok An presided over the inauguration ceremony, the Khmer Times reported.

Sok An said the 6,000 square-meter building reinforced both cultural and economic ties between the two countries.

The project was signed in 2011, under which North Korea’s Mansudea Overseas Project Group will run the museum with the Cambodian government under a build-operate-and-transfer operation for 10 years until it is handed over to the Cambodia’s Apsara Authority.

“We need more tourist products such as this to attract visitors to Cambodia. The museum…is another tourism attraction that features, through the paintings (murals) inside the museum, how our Khmer ancestors went about their daily activities during Angkorian time,” Sok An was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The new museum includes works from 63 North Korean artists.

“It was well built in a picturesque place, surrounded by Angkor temples—the pride of Khmers. We are proud that this museum was built to show Cambodian culture in the prestigious era of Angkor,” North Korean ambassador to Cambodia Hong Ki Chol said.

“I am confident the museum will make a positive contribution to giving a comprehensive understanding of ideas about all the Angkor temples and promote tourism,” he added.

Siem Reap city is home to the famed Angkor Wat Temple, which attracted some 1.67 million foreign visitors in the first ten months of this year. (PNA/Xinhua)