Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung-ryul) invited Kim Mi-so, CEO of Alps Co., Ltd. and director of the DMZ Peace Train Music Festival, as the speaker for the 643rd Kookmin University Thursday Special Lecture on Thursday, May 8, at the Kookmin University Academic Conference Hall. Kim Mi-so presented on the topic, “Creating a Unique Music Festival Centered on Values: The DMZ Peace Train Music Festival,” sharing the philosophy and process behind planning a festival that discusses peace in a non-commercial yet audience-friendly manner.

Kim introduced the festival as “an event created with the aim of transcending politics, economics, and ideology through music to experience freedom and peace,” and explained how the Piste Train, held annually in June in the DMZ area of Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, culturally explores contemporary peace. He emphasized the festival's goal of being a “1080 playground” where everyone, regardless of age or gender, can enjoy the diversity of music and the diversity of the audience.

He defined the festival as “a shared sensory experience in the same time and space,” explaining that it serves as a cultural device to refresh daily life and restore vitality amid fatigue and isolation. In particular, he emphasized the need for a festival that offers “something unfamiliar, new, and wonderful, rather than something predictable and repetitive,” in contrast to the current reality where similar festivals are repeated and commercialized.

Kim presented four core elements of festival planning: WHY (why do it), WHAT (what to do), HOW (how to do it), and IF (what is possible), and stated that he considers WHY to be the most important. He emphasized the clear background behind the planning of Piste Train, stating, “We need a festival that sings of peace through music,” “We need a space to introduce diverse music outside the charts,” and “We need a festival where generations can come together outside the city,” and explained in detail how the planning, which breaks the mold and tries something new, is being realized.

Kookmin University's Thursday Special Lecture Series, the first and longest-running regular lecture series at a Korean university featuring weekly lectures by external speakers, has welcomed approximately 640 speakers from various fields of politics, society, science, and culture, including the late former President Roh Moo-hyun, the late Cardinal Kim Su-hwan, writer Yoo Si-min, film director Park Chan-wook, National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, and U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert, over the past 30 years.