The Kim Kwang-seok Song Kim Jong-un Heard at the 2018 Summit

Part 11 of 16 in Kim Kwang-seok: The Dead Singer K-pop Can't Let Go

No. 6, “Where the Wind Blows,” is the only Kim Kwang-seok song the leaders of North and South Korea have heard sitting at the same table. An 11-year-old boy sang it at the 2018 Panmunjom summit dinner, and that one video accounts for a quarter of the song’s views.

Kim Kwang-seok – “Where the Wind Blows” (Official Audio) — 850,000 views

Its combined views come to about 43.9 million. I choked up watching the footage from Panmunjom that day. Just knowing a song he wrote drifted over a table where North and South sat together filled my heart as a fan. Kim wrote the words and music himself and put it on his fourth album in 1994 (Melon).

The Peace House at Panmunjom, an 11-year-old’s stage

On the evening of Apr. 27, 2018, the welcome dinner for the inter-Korean summit was held in the fourth-floor banquet hall of the Peace House, on the South’s side of Panmunjom. In front of President Moon Jae-in, Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju, a boy from Jeju Island named Oh Yeon-joon sang this song (Digital Times, Apr. 27, 2018). Oh had become known as the “Jeju boy” after singing “The Color of the Wind” on Mnet’s 2016 children’s singing contest Wekid, and two months earlier he had sung the Olympic Hymn at the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics (Korea Economic Daily; Digital Times, Apr. 27, 2018).

Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom explained the pick: “It speaks of a place of hope and wishes, and stands for the road to harmony, hope, peace and prosperity” (Korea Economic Daily, Apr. 27, 2018). Thirty-four people from the South and 26 from the North sat at the dinner. When the song ended, the two leaders smiled and applauded, and SBS’s Video Mug clip of the moment reached 11.06 million views.

Oh Yeon-joon – “Where the Wind Blows” (inter-Korean summit dinner, Video Mug/SBS) — 11.06 million views

The song the South Korean government chose to play for the North Korean leader wasn’t a military march or a folk song. It was a 1994 acoustic pop song. Kim came out of a university song circle that sang political songs, but there isn’t a single line of politics in this one, and that’s exactly why it could be chosen. Oh Yeon-joon entered Berklee College of Music in the US in 2025 (Newsis, July 20, 2026).

바람이 불어오는 곳 그곳으로 가네

I’m going where the wind blows from.

— Lyrics and music by Kim Kwang-seok (1994), excerpt

He leans against a rattling train, writes a letter, and stands on the road he saw in a dream. It is an uneasy happiness, thrill mixed with fear. There will be hard days, but he sets out for a new dream. Rocked by waves, he keeps his eyes on the horizon. Even with a voice he misses calling behind him, he doesn’t look back, and he gives himself to the wind toward the place where the sun is smiling.

Also read: The Song Kim Kwang-seok Was Told He Couldn't Have

A song that leaves home with a harmonica

This is one of Kim’s rare bright traveling songs. It opens with acoustic strumming and a harmonica, and in place of sorrow it carries the thrill of someone setting off. He sang it at Merkin Concert Hall in New York in November 1995. Two months later he was gone.

Kim Kwang-seok – “Where the Wind Blows” (Merkin Concert Hall, New York, 1995) — 30,000 views

AKMU’s Suhyun at 8.27 million, (G)I-DLE in Daegu

The singer who reintroduced this song to the K-pop generation is AKMU’s Lee Su-hyun. Her version on JTBC’s Begin Again 3 has 8.27 million views, second only to Oh Yeon-joon. A soundcheck version from the same show has another 240,000.

Suhyun (AKMU) – “Where the Wind Blows” (Begin Again 3, JTBC) — 8.27 million views

At the 2020 SBS Gayo Daejeon, held in Kim’s hometown of Daegu, (G)I-DLE’s Miyeon and Yuqi sat down with acoustic guitars and sang it. It was the same night as MONSTA X’s Kihyun singing “Becoming Dust” (Part 7).

Miyeon and Yuqi ((G)I-DLE) – “Where the Wind Blows” (2020 SBS Gayo Daejeon) — 400,000 views

MAMAMOO’s Solar remade the song with a full music video (1.23 million views), and Ali sang it on KBS’s Immortal Songs in 2011 (260,000 views).

Solar (MAMAMOO) – “Where the Wind Blows” (Official MV, 1theK) — 1.23 million views

Eight years have passed since this song rang out at Panmunjom, and the two leaders’ promises didn’t last. The song is still on its way there. On the day it finally arrives, I believe he’ll be the first one smiling.

Previous: Part 10 — The Breakup Song That Became a Musical About Bodyguards

Next, No. 5: “About Thirty.” The man who recorded it at thirty never made it past thirty-two.

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Sources: Melon (Kim Kwang-seok 4, June 25, 1994); Korea Economic Daily (Apr. 27, 2018); Digital Times (Apr. 27, 2018); Newsis (July 20, 2026). View counts as shown on YouTube, Oct. 25, 2026.