Former Joseon Industrial Bank Wonju Branch

The former Wonju Branch of the Joseon Industrial Bank was the Wonju branch of the Joseon Industrial Bank, which played a major role in Japan's economic invasion during the Japanese colonial period, and was the first bank established in the Wonju area.
The Joseon Industrial Bank was a bank that inherited the rights and obligations of six agricultural and industrial banks established in various regions starting in June 1906, and was founded by the Japanese Government-General of Korea as a large development bank relying on direct Japanese investment and management to maximize agricultural production in Korea. In 1943, it hired 498 employees, including 150 Korean staff, and continued to operate as the largest policy financial institution under the Japanese Government-General of Korea. However, with the liberation on August 15, the inflow of capital from Japan ceased, and due to severe inflation it became impossible to absorb private bonds, so it handled only part of the U.S. aid funds and, unable to properly carry out development bank duties, transformed into a commercial bank; then, under the Korean Industrial Bank Act enacted in 1954, it was relaunched as the Korea Development Bank, a development bank.
The exterior is overall left-right symmetrical, with windows arranged repeatedly in long vertical rows to emphasize verticality, and the outer walls finished with mortar resembling artificial stone, well demonstrating the characteristics of bank buildings from the Japanese colonial period.