The Pyongyang Television Tower is a 150 metre high tower, restaurant and observation deck in the central part of the city, just north of Kim Il-sung Stadium and the Arch of Triumph. Reports suggest that the restaurant is one of the better restaurants in Pyongyang. As it wasn’t on our itinerary we didn’t go there. This is one of the frustrating things in North Korea, you cannot just come back later for a closer look at something after your days touring but then again as the tour days were so long there was no time for that anyway.
The tower was constructed in 1967 and is modelled on the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, which was built at the same time.
What was a fairly simple TV tower in 1967 has been, over the years expanded somewhat and especially so over the past 10 years. My pictures below show a raft of satellite dishes added at the base of the tower.
The more cynical reader might ask why the dishes, normally white, are a shade of dark green. Is it such that they don’t spoil the tourists view when looking up from the Arch of Triumph or is it to make them difficult to detect from above?
In 2000, based on early Google images, there appeared to have been two dishes, now there are over thirty.
Do have a look at my review on television on my North Korea page – Watch TV in North Korea – where-in I entice the visitor to make time to watch some North Korean television.
This blog entry is one of a group (loop) of entries on The Rambling Wombat’s trip to Pyongyang, North Korea which I recommend you read in a particular order. I suggest you continue with my next entry –Sino-Korean Friendship Tower. If necessary, go to my Pyongyang introduction entry – Pyongyang – A Capital City Unlike any Other – to start this loop at the beginning.
The Rambling Wombat 