TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

Juche Tower – The View from the Top

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Eastwards Facing View

The Tower of the Juche Idea (Juche Tower) is one of the most important elements of Pyongyang’s iconography which all directly or indirectly glorify the life of the country’s modern day founder and Eternal President, Kim Il-sung. The Juche Tower celebrates the Great Leader’s Juche Idea of self reliance (see my main Juche Tower review for further detail).

The Tower is one of the most visible features in the city and you will see it regularly as you move (i.e. are brought) around the city. I think it is especially nice when lit up at night.

Anyway, you will want to climb it and you can do so. Continue reading “Juche Tower – The View from the Top” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

The Tower of the Juche Idea

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Tower of Juche Idea from Kim Il-sung Square

By the end of the Korean War (1953) Kim Il-sung had had enough of foreign imperialist intervention in the affairs of Korea. He had, with more than a little help from the Soviet Union, something, which now seems to have been forgotten about, managed to stem Japanese Imperialism and remove them from Korea in 1945. In 1953 he had defeated the United States in the Fatherland Liberation War (to outsiders the Korean War) though the US continued to occupy the southern part of the country as it does to this day. Continue reading “The Tower of the Juche Idea” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

International Kimilsungia Festival – Flower Show

 

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A flower show!

I hear my reader breath a sigh of relief thinking that this will be my first North Korean review not to mention Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, the Fatherland, US imperialists or many other things routinely trotted out in every other review from my North Korean trip. This time we will get to see pretty flowers and hear of things horticultural, you say. Continue reading “International Kimilsungia Festival – Flower Show” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

Monument to the Foundation of the Workers’ Party

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Having been entertained at the Mass Dance held in honour of 102nd anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birthday it was time to move across the square and visit what was the backdrop to the dancing – the Monument to the Foundation of the Workers’ Party. I had attempted to walk the hundred metres or so to the monument earlier, unaccompanied by a guide, and was asked to return to the group as the open monument was ‘not open’.

When we arrived as a group, a few minutes later, it was ‘open’. Continue reading “Monument to the Foundation of the Workers’ Party” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

Let’s Dance – Mass Dance

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Having had lunch and then joined locals in the Moranbong Youth Park for a walk and a picnic we were all feeling a little lethargic. What better way to work it of than have a dance.

Not known for doing things in small measure, when North Koreans dance they like to do it on a grand scale and on national holidays they regularly engage in organised Mass Dances. Continue reading “Let’s Dance – Mass Dance” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

Picnic in the Park – Don’t Get Lost!

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Picnic in the Park

If you havn’t read my general review, ‘Moranbong Park Walk – S**t happens’, may I suggest you do so before reading this review.

Having walked through the Moranbong Park to the top of the hill (an easy walk) we were invited into a smaller grassy area where seven or eight groups of people were sitting in circles bbq’ing, eating, chatting, singing folk songs and drinking beer and sojo (a local drink). There were about seven or eight people in each group with additional kids running around. Basically a picnic scene you would find in any popular park on a nice Sunday or holiday afternoon. Continue reading “Picnic in the Park – Don’t Get Lost!” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

Moranbong Youth Park Walk – S**t Happens

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Moranbong Youth Park

While having lunch we were advised that our first post lunch activity would be a walk in the park – a ‘star attraction’ of our trip. We would be able to see ordinary people having a picnic and generally enjoying their day off. As it was Kim Il-sungs 102nd birthday bash there would be more people than normal in the park so we needed to ensure we didn’t get lost – read veer away from our guides. Continue reading “Moranbong Youth Park Walk – S**t Happens” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

“Let them eat pizza”

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Pizza in Pyongyang

My reader may be familiar with the retort “let them eat cake’ attributed (probably wrongly) to Queen Marie Antoinette. This retort was made on hearing that French peasants had no bread and showed the speaker’s obliviousness to the condition of the people, especially given that cake (or brioche) was actually more expensive than bread.

Many will know that the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il had a taste for the good things of life and lapped it up Continue reading ““Let them eat pizza”” →

TheRamblingWombat Pyongyang

Pyongyang’s White Elephant

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Ryugyong Hotel

For a country that can build buildings in a day or two (for example, the Armistise Signing Hall in Panmunjom) the 330 metre high, 105 story Ryugyong Hotel ( Ryugyong – ‘capital of willows’– a former name for Pyongyang) is a major embarrassment to North Korea. In fact the unfinished hotel is, without doubt, North Korea’s number one embarrassment as, given its size and downtown Pyongyang location, it cannot be hidden or ignored (not even by our guides who could otherwise happily tell you, straight faced and without the blink of an eyelid that black was white). Continue reading “Pyongyang’s White Elephant” →