While we did not have the opportunity to go inside the Rungnado May Day Stadium it would be remiss of me not to mention it on a review of a visit to Pyongyang and we did pass reasonably close by many times.
The stadium was completed on May Day 1989 and is the world’s largest stadium in terms of seating capacity. It has a capacity of 150,000 persons. The 207,000 square metres, eight story stadium with its trademark scalloped roof (best seen from above in the picture below, courtesy of Google Earth) resembling a magnolia is located on the Rungnado Island in the Taedong River which runs through the centre of Pyongyang.
While it is used for soccer matches it does not host a home team. The North Korean football team’s home ground is the nearby Kim Il-sung Stadium (capacity 50,000). In addition to being used for soccer it also hosts athletics but it is best known, and known world wide, for its spectacular Mass Games or Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Performances normally held during August and September each year. Like most other public events in North Korea the games primary purpose is the glorification of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, the Workers’ Party of Korea together with other state organs, especially the army. In recent years the Mass Games have had an Arirang (traditional love story) theme.
On a less savoury note, in the late 1990s it is alleged that a number of North Korean army generals were executed by being burned alive inside the stadium for their role in a failed attempt to assassinate the former Leader, Kim Jong-il.
At the time of my visit the stadium was closed for refurbishment because Kim Jong-un, on a September 2013 site visit, ordered that it be refurbished.
The current Leader decreed that new seating be installed, rubber mats be fitted on the running track, grass on the soccer pitch be replaced with artificial turf and that the lighting be upgraded. Everyone took notes as they always do when the Leader gives on the spot guidance and advice! (picture 3 – AFP/Getty Images).
Due to the refurbishment (being carried out by around 10,000 soldiers) there was no Mass Games in 2014.
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 – The Pyongyang Marathon. 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 