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Korea, Pyongyang
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Description
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The
Kumsusan Memorial Palace
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More Kumsusan Memorial Palace
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Tower
of Juche Idea
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More Tower of Juche Idea
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| Arch
of Triumph |
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The Arch of Triumph
stands in Kaeson-dong, Moranbong District. It was erected on the historic
site where the great leader President Kim II Sung, who had led the
20-year-long arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle to victory, made
a speech after his triumphal return home. It was inaugurated on April 14,
1982. It is a three-storeyed stone building 60 metres high, 52.5 metres
long and 36.2 metres wide. The gateway of the arch is 27 metres high and
18 metres wide. The Arch of Triumph has three parts. The first part
consists of four walls and four massive pillars, the second part is the
balcony forming its central structure and the third part is the
three-tiered roof. The gateway is framed with 70 azalea reliefs. Carved in
relief on the Arch of Triumph are the Song of General Kim II Sung and the
dates "1925-1945" which indicate the year when President Kim II
Sung set out on the road of national liberation and the year when he
returned home in triumph after having accomplished the cause.
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| Grand
People's Study House |
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The Grand People's
Study House on Namsan Hill in the heart of Pyongyang was opened on April
1, 1982. It has sturdy pillars of white granite and many hip-saddle roofs
capped with blue tiles which rise one above another. Its architectural
ornaments are in pastel colors. An important center for intellectualizing
the whole of society and a palace of learning for all people, it has a
total floor space of nearly 100,000 square metres and can house 30 million
volumes. It contains more than 600 rooms, including reading, lecture,
audio-visual, information and consultation rooms. Books are delivered by a
remote-controlled device. The general catalogue room situated in the center
of the building is decorated with a bead chandelier, over 6 metres
in diameter, and over 300 star-shaped lamps and jewel-flower patterns.
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| Korean
Revolution Museum |
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The Korean Revolution
Museum was founded on August 1, 1948. The present museum on Mansu Hill
was opened in April 1972. The Korean Revolution Museum with a total floor
space of over 54,000 square metres consists of a grand monument and a
museum. The museum has over 90 display rooms with a total length of over
4,500 metres. On display are the materials showing the historical facts
of the whole period of the Korean revolution. The museum has a grand
cyclorama which portrays the glorious anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle
and another one which reproduces the Battle on Height 1211 fought during
the Fatherland Liberation War. They are complemented by eight small- and
middle-sized ones. The relics and materials on display show the course of
the glorious revolutionary struggle traversed by our people under the
wise guidance of the great leader President Kim II Sung and the Workers'
Party of Korea.
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| Pyongyang Circus |
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The Pyongyang Circus was inaugurated on May 1, 1989. The circus, whose
total floor space is 70,000 square metres, is of unique architecture. It
is a comprehensive polygonal acrobatic centre for the performance
of water, ice and animal acts as well as of general acrobatic
pieces. All the 5 buildings of this circus have their characteristics.
Building No. 3, the main one of the circus, has an auditorium of 3,500
seats and large stages so that not only acrobatic shows but also art
performances can be given. Building No. 4 consists mainly of rehearsal
rooms and greenrooms and building No. 5 is devoted to the animals.
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| Metro |
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The Pyongyang Metro has two
lines which intersect and follow the main streams of the passenger
traffic in the city. The underground stations differ in size, composition
and form. Murals, sculptures and embossed carvings at every station
show the path of struggle traversed by the Korean people. Underground
stations have names familiar and meaningful for our people, such as
Kwangbok (liberation),
Kaeson (triumphal return), Ponghwa (beacon), Konguk (state building),
Sungri (victory), Konsol (construction), Ragwon (paradise),
Hwanggumbol (golden field), Pulgunbyol (red star), Yonggwang (glory) and
Puhung (revival). They are adorned to fit with their names. |
| May
Day Stadium |
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The May Day Stadium
stands on Rungna Islet in the Taedong River. It can accommodate 150,000
people. The stadium was completed on May 1, 1989. Its arena is covered
with natural turf. The surrounding track is 10 metres wide and 400
metres long. The cantilever stretches 60 metres inside and 40 metres
outside around the stadium. It is in the shape of a parachute. The stadium
has training rooms, a swimming pool, ultra-sonic bathrooms, saunas, beds,
resting rooms, 10 elevators and other facilities. The stadium was the
venue of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 13th World Festival of
Youth and Students held in 1989.
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| Revolutionary
Martyrs' Cemetery |
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The Revolutionary
Martyrs' Cemetery is on the Chujak Peak of Mt. Taesong. Over 100
revolutionary martyrs who bravely fought for the liberation of the country
and for the freedom and emancipation of the people lie buried in graves
topped by their busts. The cemetery was unveiled on October 13, 1975 and
rebuilt and enlarged in 1985. At the entrance to the cemetery there is a
Korean-style gate, and a little onward, on both sides, stand the memorial
pillars in the shape of stone towers.
If you go up farther, you will
find on one side a monument inscribed with the great leader Comrade Kim IL
Sung's handwriting which reads:
"The noble revolutionary
spirit displayed by the anti-Japanese revolutionary martyrs will dwell
forever in the hearts of our Party and our people.
October 10, 1985
Kim IL Sung"
Over 300 steps of 40-metre-wide
granite stairs lead up to the granite sculptural groups (5.5 metres high
and 18 metres long) showing the struggle of the revolutionary martyrs,
which stand on both sides. In front of the graveyard there is a pedestal
for placing floral tributes with a medal of Hero of the DPRK carved in
relief. It is flanked by a bronze sculptural group of five figures
representing mourners. At the rear of the cemetery stands a large flag cut
in red marble, 11 metres high and 22.2 metres long.
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| Mansudae Assembly Hall |
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The Mansudae Assembly Hall in the central part of Pyongyang City was
opened in 1984. It has a total floor space of 45,000 square metres and
consists of the basement and four storeys. The exterior of the assembly
hall has been built with natural stones. The halls, corridors, meeting
halls and other rooms are characterized by their own architectural
beauties. The assembly lobby is hung with many bright chandeliers, lined
with walls and pillars of natural marble and floored with natural gems.
Between the columns stand sculptural groups. The assembly hall has a large
meeting room of 2,000 seats, small meeting rooms, rooms for interviews and
for signing ceremonies. There are many lounges and drawing rooms. The
interior of the assembly hall is elegant with a refined decorative art.
The hall also has the rooms with multi channel sound equipment which
provides foreign language service through simultaneous
interpretation.
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| Mangyongdae |
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Mangyongdae is about 12
kilometres southwest of downtown Pyongyang. Mangyong Hill, 45 metres
above the sea, is the most elevated spot in the area and is famous for its
beautiful scenery. Long ago, the local people named it Mangyong
(All-Seeing) Hill because of the fine view it gave of the exquisite
landscape and decided to call their village Mangyongdae. At the foot of
the hill stands a low-eaved straw-thatched house. Here the great leader of
the Korean people, President Kirn II Sung, was born on April 15, 1912, as
the eldest son of Kirn Hyong Jik and Kang Ban Sok and he spent his
childhood working out the great plan for the revolution. In the house many
of the original items are preserved and nearby there are a great number of
relics through which the President developed his love for the country and
the aspiration for revolution. The Mangyongdae Revolutionary Museum is
near the old house and the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School is at the foot
of Mangyong Hill. In Mangyongdae there are a fun fair equipped with modern
amusement facilities and a wading pool.
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| Ponghwa-ri |
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More Ponghwa-ri
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| Chilgol
Revolutionary site |
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More Chilgol Revolutionary site
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| Kim
Il Sung Stadium |
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The Kim II Sung Stadium is situated at the foot of Moran Hill in
Pyongyang. There football, basketball,
volleyball and various athletic events and sports contests can be
held simultaneously. The stadium has a three-storeyed auditorium, with 43
stands from the first to the last. It has 100,000 seats covered with
30-metre wide canopies. In the first floor there are office rooms, rooms
for keeping sports instruments and service facilities for players and in
the second floor there are service facilities for spectators and training
rooms. The stadium has enough facilities for light to provide 1,800 luxes
so that sports games can be held at night. It is provided with facilities
for mass gymnastic displays.
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| Kim
Il Sung Square |
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Kim
II Sung Square is in the center of the city. Its floor is covered with
over 100,000 white granite plates, over 300,000 granite pavement slabs and
other processed stones. Against the background of the Grand People's Study
House, the platform of the square faces the Tower of the Juche Idea across
the Taedong River. Mass rallies, parades, reviews and celebration soirees
are held in the square. On July 28, 1953, a Pyongyang mass meeting was held
here in the presence of the great leader President Kim II Sung to
celebrate the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War. Since then many
functions have taken place at the square. The square is widely used by the
citizens as a center for socio-political activities and cultural life.
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| The
Ice Rink |
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The Ice Rink has been built on the bank of the Potong River, Pyongyang.
Its floor space is 25,000 square metres. The artificial skating rink is
1,800 square metres and the auditorium has 6,000 seats. The rink is 65.5
metres high. The cone-shaped rink is designed mainly for
all-the-year-round figure skating and ice hockey. The temperature of the
ice is 3-5 degrees below zero and that of the auditorium is 18-20 degrees.
The Ice Rink was built in one and a half year and was opened on April 7,
1982.
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| Department Store No. 1 |
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Pyongyang Department Store No. 1 was built on April 9, 1982. It is in the
center of the capital city of Pyongyang. Its total floor space is nearly
40,000 square metres and it provides fine service to customers. The
former department store took more than 7 years to build (before the
country's liberation in August 1945). However, the new one, which is 25
times as large as the previous one, was completed in only one
year. |
| Changgwang
Street |
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Changgwang
Street was built after the old residential quarters of Ryunhwanson Street
were demolished in the 1980s. It is filled with 18-, 20-and 30-storeyed
apartment houses in various styles. Each
flat occupies a floor space of 150 square metres on an average and is
equipped with over 30 pieces of furniture. The street has many restaurants
and other service facilities. The restaurants serve noodle, steamed
chicken, hard-boiled meats, sliced raw fish, roast shellfish and other
Korean dishes and foreign food.
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| Koryo
Hotel |
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Pyongyang Koryo Hotel consists of two
45-storeyed buildings,
140 metres high, and their total floor space is 84,000 square metres. It
can accommodate 1,000 guests. The two buildings are linked together by
the basement, the first, second and third floors and by corridor on the
35th floor and their uppermost floors are round-shaped. The hotel
contains many rooms for banquet, conference and interviews, cinemas,
bookshops, amusement rooms and dining halls. Excellent facilities for
international telegraph and telephone services are available. The two
buildings are topped by a revolving restaurant of 200 square metres
which commands a bird's-eye view of the city. In the basement, under
the central hall, there are a wading pool of 500 square metres, a shop,
a clinic, beauty and barber's shops and other welfare service
facilities. It has indoor and outdoor gardens, tennis and badminton
courts and other sports facilities. The area of marble and mirrors is
over 28,000 square metres. The hotel was completed in August 1985. |
| Chollima
Statue |
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The
Chollima Statue has been designed by the sculptor O
Tae Hyong. It is a tribute to the Chollima
Movement.
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| The
Grand Monument on Mansu Hill |
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The Korean people erected the
Grand Monument on Mansu Hill in April 1972 from their unanimous desire
and aspiration to have the immortal revolutionary exploits of the great
leader Comrade Kim ILSung remembered for all time and to carry forward
and consummate the revolutionary cause of Juche which he initiated. This
grand monument is composed of the bronze statue of Comrade Kim IL Sung,
monuments and murals. The statue shows his majestic figure looking far
ahead, with his left hand resting on his waist and his right hand raised
to indicate the road for the people to follow. The mosaic figure of Mt.
Paektu which forms the background to the statue is 70 metres long and
12.85 metres high. It symbolizes the glorious revolutionary traditions
which he created. The large monuments standing on either side of the
statue represent the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle,
socialist revolution and socialist construction. They are 22.5 metres
high and 50 metres long each. The sculptural groups are 5 metres high on
an average and their total length is 200 metres. The memorial to the
anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle stands to the right of the statue.
In its canter are red banners with 119 sculptures in relief around it. The
memorial to the socialist revolution and building of socialism
stands to the left of the statue. In the center of the monument a red
banner is raised high and in its rear on both sides the flags of the
Workers' Party of Korea and of the Republic and placards inscribed with
"Long live General Kim IL Sung!" and "Let us drive out US
imperialism and reunify the country!" stand. Around them are carved
109 figures showing the socialist revolution and construction carried
out by the Korean people. And in the rear of this group there is a
six-men group portraying the world revolution and the anti-imperialist
and anti-US struggle. The pedestal on which the sculptural groups stand,
grows progressively higher from the back to the front, and the size of
the figures increases so that the indomitable fighting spirit of our
people who are moving forward and the development of our revolution
along the road of victory are emphasized. And the flag is shown
fluttering and the colour of the red flag is accentuated by using a
reddish brown natural stone, so that the revolutionary flag of Juche is
represented in depth. The Grand Monument on Mansu Hill makes a perfectly
harmonious formative ensemble because of the proper arrangement of the
sculptural groups against the background of Mt. Paektu mosaicked on the
wall, and the position and size of the monument selected in due
consideration of the topographical conditions and environment of Mansu
Hill. |
| Chonsung
Revolutionary Site |
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This is a historic
revolutionary site associated with the immortal feats of the great
leader President Kim IL Sung who, residing here from the beginning of
1951 to the end of the Fatherland Liberation War, led the war to
brilliant victory.
It is located in
Chonsung-dong,
Moranbong District,Pyongyang.It comprises the surface and
underground sections connected with the great leader 's immortal
revolutionary activities.
The surface section consists
of an office room where the great leader prepared for important meetings, mapped
out farsighted plans for postwar reconstruction
including the rebuilding of Pyongyang, and indicated how they should be implemented, a
meeting hall where he personally examined and ratified the
document of the Armistice Agreement, the office building of the Military
Commission and a dining room.
The underground section
comprises an office where the great leader wrote historic works and met
officials in heavy industry, geological prospecting and other branches of
the economy to show them definite ways and methods of work, a conference
room where he presided over plenary meetings of the Cabinet and meetings
of the Military Commission, guided meetings of activists from different
fields of the national economy and took concrete steps to stabilize the
people's livelihood.
The Chongsung Revolutionary
Museum was opened in April 1970. |
| Party
Founding Museum |
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This was once the building of
the Central Committee of the Party, where the great leader Comrade Kim
IL Sung worked in the first period following the liberation of the
country on August 15, 1945. It is located at the southern slope of
Haebang Hill. The museum was opened in October 1970.
On the second floor are the
office and reception room and meeting hall which the great leader
Comrade Kim IL Sung used when he was working for founding and
consolidating our Party.
On display in the seven rooms
on the first floor are historical materials and mementoes covering the
period from the time of laying the organizational and ideological
foundations for the founding of the Party during the anti-Japanese
revolutionary struggle to that of founding the Party and expanding it
into a mass party.
Beyond the main building of
the museum stands the historic house which was the great leader's first
residence after his triumphal return home. There is also the Monument to
the Founding of the Party erected on October 10, 1975 on the occasion of
the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea. |
| Victorious
Fatherland Liberation War Museum |
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The Victorious Fatherland
Liberation War Museum is a monumental building dedicated to the immortal
exploits the great leader Comrade Kim IL Sung performed for the country
and the people in defeating the aggression of the imperialist Allied
forces. Originally, it was opened at Haebangsan-dong, Central District,
Pyongyang, in August 1953 under the name of the Fatherland Liberation
War Memorial. The present museum was opened on April 11, 1974.
The museum has more than 80
exhibition halls. Among them are the introduction hall, halls for the
period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and the period of the
democratic revolution and the operation hall of the period of the
Fatherland Liberation War, the hall of arms and services, the hall of
Heroes of the Republic and the hall of the struggle of the people in the
rear. There is also an enormous panorama showing the valiant battle to
liberate Taejon.
On display are materials of
historic value, photos, paintings, sculptures, relief models, panoramas,
weapons used by the KPA men and so on. |
| Grand
Monuments on Mansu Hill |
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The Korean people erected the
Grand Monument on Mansu Hill in April 1972 from their unanimous desire
and aspiration to have the immortal revolutionary exploits of the great
leader Comrade Kim ILSung remembered for all time and to carry forward
and consummate the revolutionary cause of Juche which he initiated.
This grand monument is composed of the bronze statue of Comrade Kim IL
Sung, monuments and murals.
The statue shows his majestic figure looking far ahead, with his left
hand resting on his waist and his right hand raised to indicate the road
for the people to follow. The mosaic figure of Mt. Paektu which forms
the background to the statue is 70 metres long and 12.85 metres high. It
symbolizes the glorious revolutionary traditions which he created.
The large monuments standing on either side of the statue represent the
period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, socialist revolution
and socialist construction. They are 22.5 metres high and 50 metres long
each. The sculptural groups are 5 metres high on an average and their
total length is 200 metres.
The memorial to the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle stands to the
right of the statue. In its center are red banners with 119 sculptures
in relief around it.
The memorial to the socialist revolution and building of socialism
stands to the left of the statue. In the center of the monument a red
banner is raised high and in its rear on both sides the flags of the
Workers' Party of Korea and of the Republic and placards inscribed with
"Long live General Kim IL Sung!" and "Let us drive out US
imperialism and reunify the country!" stand. Around them are carved
109 figures showing the socialist revolution and construction carried
out by the Korean people. And in the rear of this group there is a
six-men group portraying the world revolution and the anti-imperialist and anti-US struggle.
The pedestal on which the sculptural groups stand, grows progressively
higher from the back to the front, and the size of the figures increases
so that the indomitable fighting spirit of our people who are moving
forward and the development of our revolution along the road of victory
are emphasized. And the flag is shown fluttering and the color of the
red flag is accentuated by using a reddish brown natural stone, so that
the revolutionary flag of Juche is represented in depth.
The Grand Monument on Mansu Hill makes a perfectly harmonious formative
ensemble because of the proper arrangement of the sculptural groups
against the background of Mt. Paektu mosaicked on the wall, and the
position and size of the monument selected in due consideration of the
topographical conditions and environment of Mansu.
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| Chonsung
Revolutionary Site |
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This is a historic revolutionary site associated with the immortal
feats of the great leader President Kim IL Sung who, residing here from
the beginning of 1951 to the end of the Fatherland Liberation War, led the war to brilliant victory.
It is located in Chonsung-dong, Moranbong District, Pyongyang.It comprises
the surface and underground sections connected with the great leader 's
immortal revolutionary activities.
The surface section consists of an office room where the great leader
prepared for important meetings, mapped out farsighted plans for postwar
reconstruction including the rebuilding of Pyongyang, and indicated how
they should be implemented, a meeting hall where he personally examined
and ratified the document of the Armistice Agreement, the office building
of the Military Commission and a dining room.
The underground section comprises an office where the great leader wrote
historic works and met officials in heavy industry, geological
prospecting and other branches of the economy to show them definite ways
and methods of work, a conference room where he presided over plenary
meetings of the Cabinet and meetings of the Military Commission, guided
meetings of activists from different fields of the national economy and
took concrete steps to stabilize the people's livelihood.
The Chongsung Revolutionary Museum was opened in April 1970.
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Democratic People's Republic of Korea
