Architecture for the Masses 2014 (issue #2)

ARCHITECTURE FOR THE MASSES ARCHITECTURE FOR THE MASSES is a magazine produced by Koryo Tours, the world’s leading DPRK (North Korea) travel specialist. The magazine examines architectural and interior design in Pyongyang, North Korea. It follows the same structure as the Architecture Tour, which is run

by Koryo Tours and accompanied by Soviet cultural historian Dr. Daniel Levitsky. This is the second edition (issue #2) of the Architecture for the Masses magazine.

The architecture of Pyongyang is one of the DPRK’s highlights. In any socialist regime, architecture plays a key part in the process of building up a new social and political environment following revolutionary events.

The total destruction of Pyongyang during the Korean War gave Korean architects and construction workers a clean slate from which to build a perfect socialist capital anew, and they seized upon that opportunity with relish.

This magazine introduces a few of Pyongyang’s architectural gems.

The tour itself will have access to many buildings not usually open to tourist groups, and the group will listen to lectures from Korean architects and interior designers at many of the locations we visit, allowing the participants to learn a tremendous amount about both the functions and the history of Pyongyang’s remarkable buildings. The magazine is a sneak-preview of the tour, which will be both an architectural and a historical journey through North Korea’s socialist development like no other, and it will also be perfect for anyone wanting to see the giant celebrations for the anniversary of the birth of eternal President Kim Il Sung (Mass dance, Kimilsungia flower show, hanging out in parks and local areas with holidaying Pyongyangers, the whole shebang!).

Thank you for reading. Inquiries can be sent to: info@koryogroup.com - Koryo Tours

New apartment buildings in Kwangbok Street in Pyongyang, DPRK.

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NOTES FROM THE ARCHITECTURE TOUR IN 2013 Dr. Levitsky tells us about his experience and impressions of Pyongyang’s architecture, as well as what he encountered on the tour itself in October 2013

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ABOUT ARCHITECTURE IN THE DPRK (NORTH KOREA) Description of Pyongyang / DPRK’s Architecture motifs

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POLITICAL SPACES & MONUMENTS Introducing the Morangbong Theatre, one of the earliest post-liberation buildings in the city, dating from 1946, as well as the Juche Tower, Kim Il Sung Square, Kumsusan Memorial Palace of the Sun and the Party Foundation Monument

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EXTERIORS & INTERIORS A journey through the stunning exteriors and interiors of Pyongyang’s most iconic buildings

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MAJOR CULTURAL ESTABLISHMENTS Exploring Pyongyang’s cultural establishments. Featuring the Mansudae Art Theatre, Pyongyang Cinema, Pyongyang Circus, Pyongyang Grand Theatre and a special Koryo Tours exclusive report on the Ryugyong hotel, as well as an introduction to Revolutionary Opera and the film ‘Flower Girl’

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EDUCATION & CULTURE Looking at some of the key buildings designed in Pyongyang since independence which aimed to tackle widespread illiteracy

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SPORTS & HEALTH Tracing the development of this aspect of socialist life from the earlier days of the North Korean state to the present day, looking in particular at issues such as physical wellbeing and discipline, and at the architecture of Pyongyang’s Sports Street

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MUSEUMS & TRANSPORT Examining the transmission of the revolutionary message to the Korean people, as well as to foreign visitors, in the form of museums, transportation and galleries. This section will examine the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, Pyongyang Metro,Metro Museum & Three Revolutions Exhibition

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KOREAN ARCHITECTURE BEFORE 1945 Exploring Korean architecture before 1945. The old city of Kaesong, Minsok folk hotel, Confucian University

102 ABOUT ARCHITECTURE TOUR 2014 Highlights and introduction to the Architecture Tour, which will feature exclusive access

104 ARCHITECTURE TOUR ITINERARY 2014 Full detailed itinerary description for Architecture Tour 2014 (Travel date: April)

106 ABOUT KORYO TOURS Introduction to Koryo Tours | The world’s leading DPRK (North Korea) Travel Specialist since 1993

2014 © Koryo Tours (Koryo Tours is part of Koryo Group)

Print date: February 2014

NOTES FROM ARCHITECTURE TOUR 2013

Dr. Daniel Levitsky Soviet Cultural Historian

Our very first Architecture Tour took place between October 5th and 12th, 2013. As someone who has been an admirer of socialist architecture ever since my first trip to Moscow back in 1994, I was extremely excited about the opportunities which this tour offered to see inside many of Pyongyang’s monumental public buildings for the first time.

The tour offered not only ample chances to do this, but also many surprises and extra bits of unforgettable entertainment into the bargain. It also offered unprecedented ways to really appreciate Pyongyang as a planned, utopian socialist city much more fully than had ever been possible before.

For me (and no doubt all the members of our group), one of the most important aspects of this tour was the chance to discover the vast, often retro interiors of post-Korean War buildings which I had driven past so many times on previous tours, but had been unable to enter.

We were the first group to get inside (amongst others) the distinctive cap-shaped Ice Rink on Chollima Street, the Pyongyang Grand Theatre, which stands majestically at the end of Sungri (formerly Stalin) Street, the East Pyongyang Theatre, the wonderful neoclassical 1950s Taedongmun cinema (now splendidly restored), and the enormous Kaesong Schoolchildren’s Palace in the border city of Kaesong, built in traditional Korean style in 1961 and still preserving its original early-60s interior.

Next April’s tour should be even more exciting and pioneering, as it will see us get inside even more previously-closed buildings, including the People’s Palace of Culture and the Indoor Stadium on Chollima Street, the Mansudae Assembly Hall in central Pyongyang by the Mansudae Grand Monument, and the huge, sprawling campus of Kim Il Sung University, the DPRK’s highest seat of learning.

Perhaps most excitingly of all, it will provide us with the first ever opportunity to enter a Pyongyang apartment and to see the way that average residents of Pyongyang live within the confines of their own domestic space. This should prove a fascinating experience, and there will no doubt be even more architectural and cultural treats in store for us upon our return to Pyongyang in the spring.

For Pyongyang’s modernist, grandiose urban design makes it one of the finest examples of a post-war socialist city anywhere. It is also somewhere where remarkable things happen inside these stately buildings, many of which held unexpected surprises and treats for our group.

One of the greatest moments of this kind was during our visit to the Pyongyang Grand Theatre, the interior of which alone was an incredible sight to behold, its 1960s neoclassical columns and ornate, Stalinesque interior sculptures and colonnaded balconies impressing us as soon as we entered the enormous entrance hall.

This, however, was not all which this landmark building held in store for us. For as we entered the theatre’s huge auditorium, we were met with an unforgettable sight, for we were walking straight into a full dress rehearsal of one of the great Korean Revolutionary Operas,’ True Daughter of the Party’, written specifically to be performed in this very theatre in the early 1970s. Didactic and inspiring, it tells the story of a heroic Korean nurse and her devotion to the fatherland during the trials of the Korean War.

The East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, the location of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s historic 2008 performance in Pyongyang, also gave us a unique, unprecedented opportunity to see the kind of impressive spectacle to which Pyongyang residents are treated on a regular basis, but which foreign tourists very rarely get to see.

The theatre’s entrance hall is an amazing sight in itself, with a truly awe-inspiring floor-to-ceiling painting of the beautiful Ulim Waterfall, familiar to many of our tourists as a stop-off point on the journey from Pyongyang to the East coast city of Wonsan.

The theatre’s auditorium, meanwhile, once again held a very special surprise for us; as we entered the huge space, the lights went off, and we found ourselves gazing excitedly at a truly spectacular performance of Korean synchronised dance and singing, all performed in wonderfully colourful costumes and accompanied by stirring yet beautiful orchestral music from the pit below.

Perhaps the greatest and most exciting ‘interior’ experience of the trip, however, was not in fact in the capital itself, but in the provincial city of Kaesong, familiar to many tourists as the launching pad for a visit to the DMZ and the border with the South.

For we were the first foreign tour group ever to visit the Kaesong Schoolchildren’s Palace, the earliest such extracurricular activity centre in the DPRK, and a wonderful example of early-1960s socialist grandiosity, executed in a traditional Korean style, a place where architecture and interior design truly merge with social policy and education.

We were helped in this endeavour by fascinating lectures from Korean architects, historians and interior designers, who explained to us both the story behind the emergence of some of Pyongyang’s most iconic buildings, and the way in which their design helped to shape Korean socialist identity and consciousness.

It was really exciting to be able to roam around large housing areas in Pyongyang such as Tongil and Kwangbok Streets, with their rows of identical, 1970s and ‘80s socialist-style blocks, and also to be the first group to walk around the post-war, socialist centre of Kaesong city, discovering its central square in detail for the first time.

We were, for example, able to discover that the 1970s and ‘80s buildings around us, usually passed quickly on the way to local sights out of town, were a cultural hall, a cinema, and a branch of the local university. The chance to learn about the details of the centres of the DPRK’s cities, coupled with the incredible performances and social activities upon which we had unwittingly stumbled, made this tour the extremely exciting, ground-breaking experience that it was.

April’s tour will not only take us too even more previously unvisited buildings, but should allow us to experience many more unique events and activities along the way.

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ABOUT ARCHITECTURE IN THE DPRK (NORTH KOREA)

Pyongyang’s broad streets, its larger-than-life socialist-realist monuments glorifying the leaders, Korean soldiers, peasants, intellectuals and workers, its monumental socialist housing projects, and its plentiful, mass cultural and sporting facilities were intended to make it a true monument to the achievements of socialism.

Pyongyang was designed to be a capital where every North Korean would feel like a truly modern socialist – the architecture intended to speak the language of socialism and progress to all its citizens. It was designed to provide a utopian backdrop for their daily routines.

Whether they were commuting to work on the Metro system, travelling on the trolleybus and tram systems down the broad highways, taking part in work in shops, factories or museums, indulging in evening cultural activity such as watching a film in one of Pyongyang’s grand socialist cinemas, or engaging in sporting activity or gymnastics practice in one of its colossal stadia, the architecture was planned to provide the means for them to carry out their tasks in grandiose, inspiring surroundings.

Pyongyang was laid out as a modern, progressive vision, to tie in with the organisation of the North Korean socialist system. Its socialist-realist monuments and buildings were designed to emphasise the revolutionary achievements since independence from the Japanese occupation (1910 - 1945) and the Korean War (1950 - 1953).

Every building was commissioned with a social purpose, every building is state-owned and run, and every building was to be used by Koreans to better themselves physically or mentally, and to become at one with their labour and with their socialist leisure.

Pyongyang was left flattened at the end of the Korean War. The architects in charge of its reconstruction were charged with the task of creating a city which symbolised a new, revolutionary era in Korean history and culture. The initial speed at which the buildings were built (known as Chollima Speed), together with their ultra-modern style, gave a sense of dynamism and instantaneous progress towards the attainment of a socialist future.

Its monuments and seemingly identical buildings are not meant merely as staid, static embodiments of Korean socialism, but were intended to allow Koreans living in Pyongyang to sense the power of socialism, and the achievements of their revolutionary forebears.

Stories of revolutionary feats would be immortalised in the monumental socialist-realist statues around the city.

Pyongyang’s city plan and architecture provides an insight into the intention to create the definitive socialist city, combining green space with all necessary urban facilities. It is surely one of the best examples of the progression of socialist architecture over the past 60 years.

political spaces & monuments

Introducing

Moranbong THEATRE

Pyongyang’s first socialist theatre

One of the earliest post-liberation buildings in the city, dating from 1946, this theatre features an ornate neoclassical exterior and a beautifully proportioned, collonaded interior. Situated on a hill in lush parkland at the entrance to Moran Park, it is one of the most classically elegant of the capital’s cultural establishments, and one of the principal venues for orchestral performances. Its interior consists of a spacious central hall and grand staircase, with balconies leading in to its large auditorium, which can accommodate up to 800 spectators.

In 1948, it played its part in the DPRK’s political history, hosting the first general people’s assembly after Korea’s liberation.

Those who have been to a post-war Soviet theatre will immediately recognise the design and imposing imperial facades of this building.

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Juche Tower The iconic Tower of the Juche Idea, unveiled in 1982 as the ultimate architectural celebration of Juche ideology, and erected to mark Kim Il Sung’s 70th birthday. This monument is 150m high, and offers a panoramic view of the whole of Pyongyang for those who take the lift to the top.

Kim Il Sung Square The centre of post-war Pyongyang, constructed in the mid-1950s.

Laid out in the style of many post-war Soviet squares, this area is the political focal point of the DPRK, playing host to all of the country’s most important military parades and mass rallies.

Kumsusan Memorial Palace of the Sun Built in 1977, this building originally functioned as Kim Il Sung’s seat of government, and is now his mausoleum, as well as that of his son, Kim Jong Il. Set in huge, extremely well-kept grounds and built in an austere, impressive neoclassical style, it is lavishly constructed with gold fittings and marble-clad rooms displaying medals, photographs and various train carriages, as well as boats and cars which the leaders used during their lifetime.

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Party Foundation Monument Completed in 1995 as a definitive sign of the Party’s power and prestige, symbolised by the worker’s giant hammer, the peasant’s sickle and intellectual’s calligraphy brush. It was erected to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean Workers’ Party.

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EXTERIORS & INTERIORS

East Pyongyang Theatre

One of Pyongyang’s most distinctive buildings is its unique Ice Rink, completed in 1981. This building consists of a conical modernist structure reputedly designed to resemble a skater’s cap.

A Korean Man dwarfed by the enormous Ice Rink

East Pyongyang Theatre - entrance hall

May Day Stadium This was completed in 1989 and consists of 16 arched glass roofs, allowing the building to resemble a flower blooming or a parachute which has just landed. This is where the spectacular Mass Games performances are held each year between July and October.

The stadium seats an incredible 150,000 spectators, and its stage can easily accommodate 100,000 performers.

Arirang Mass Games are held at the May Day stadium, which is a distinctive feature of the Pyongyang skyline.

The Mass Games can essentially be described as a synchronized socialistrealist spectacular, featuring over 100,000 participants in a 90 minute display of gymnastics, dance, acrobatics, and dramatic performance, accompanied by music and other effects, all wrapped in a highly politicised package.

Literally no other place on Earth has anything comparable and it has to be seen with your own eyes to truly appreciate the scale of the display.

Changwangwon Health Complex

Changgwang Health and Recreation Complex This complex was built between 1981 and 1986. There is an opportunity to get a haircut in the hair salon, which preserves its original furniture and equipment from 1981.

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Chongnyon hotel

Chongnyon Hotel This 30-storey high-rise hotel, which stands at the junction of Chongchun and Kwangbok streets, was built in 1989 to accommodate delegates attending the World Festival of Youth and Students, which was held in 1989 in Pyongyang. Its exterior shape resembles a missile, while its interior areas contain some of the finest examples of late-socialist interior design in the city. The building combines a brutalist high-rise main section with cylindrically-shaped low-rise sections at the front and rear. Particularly notable are the beautifully-designed circular lobby, the large, open balconies running along its perimeter, the long, curved billiards room on the hotel’s first floor, and the two strikingly-designed swimming pools, one indoor and one outdoor, the latter of which features a distinctive curved design, original tiling and splendid views of the gargantuan socialist blocks around the hotel.

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major cultural establishments

Mansudae Art Theatre A growing number of grand political and cultural centres were built and opened around central Pyongyang in the 1970s and 80s.

The earlier of these consisted mainly of a combination of a simplified, streamlined version of late Stalinist neo-classicism with some minor nods to Korean culture in small elements of their design, and features of 1960s and 70s Soviet modernism.

They thus preserve the immense grandiosity and austerity, as well as the colonnaded facades, broad entrance areas, and enormous foyers of typical socialist public buildings of the post-war era.

The two best examples of these types of buildings are the April 25 House of Culture (1975) and the Mansudae Art Theatre (1976).

The latter contains a huge revolving stage, together with enormous chandeliered rooms and revolutionary frescoes on its huge walls, and is set alongside huge, landscaped grounds complete with fountains, grand paths and stairways.

Later examples of Pyongyang cultural centres show the progression during the 1980s to a more post-modernist, almost international style of construction and decoration.

These buildings use more glass and plainer facades, and lose the neoclassical elements of previous buildings, achieving a lighter, more dynamic look, rather like some Soviet public buildings of the late 1970s and 80s.

Fountain Park in front of Mansudae Art Theatre (1976) This park is very much the yawning plaza of the socialist monumental city, a place where locals can stroll and have their wedding photo taken, and designed to provide an uplifting foreground to the theatre itself, turning the whole area into a planned artistic and social space.

The original interior of the Taedonggang Diplomatic Club bar, designed in the 1980s.

Koryo Tours exclusive

We’ve been up the Ryugyong!

On Sept 23rd 2012 Koryo Tours’ staff were taken to the top of the enigmatic and oddly iconic 105 storey Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang – we were the first foreigners allowed to take pictures there and are able to print a handful of shots of the ground floor and the open air viewing platform more than 300 metres up.

Until then the memories of a view over Pyongyang that many have imagined but few have experienced remain with us. As soon as the building can be occupied we will of course offer tours staying there – stay tuned for further info that we’ll beam from the top of the tower!

The view was incredible and breathtaking indeed! The inside of the building still has substantial work to be done but the structure of the lobby, dining area and conference room (all on the ground floor) were visible. Sources at the site suggest 2 or 3 more years until projected completion at which time hotel rooms, office space, and long term rentals will be available.

Construction of this hotel began in the late 1980s, and was stalled until 2008, when work recommenced.

People’s Army Circus / Pyongyang Circus These two buildings, the first of which was opened in 1964 and the latter in 1989, host Pyongyang’s finest acrobatics shows. On national holidays, they often stage themed performances featuring acrobatic renditions of key moments in Korean socialist history and development, to the tune of stirring scores.

These performances are set against huge socialist-realist backdrops depicting key historical personae, heroic battles, scenes of the construction of Pyongyang, and revolutionary monuments.

Revolutionary opera

the Pyongyang Grand Theatre

The Pyongyang Grand Theatre features an opulent, neoclassical entrance hall, renovated a few years ago but still preserving its original socialist monumentality, complete with colonnaded balconies and huge central chandelier. On our tour in October 2013 our guides opened the doors to the theatre’s main auditorium, a burst of loud operatic music hit our ears, and we walked into a darkened space and straight into a full dress-rehearsal of the classic Korean revolutionary opera ‘True Daughter of the Party’, written and first performed in this very theatre in the early 1970s, and one of the five great revolutionary operas of the DPRK. In the mid-1960s General Kim Jong Il was put in charge of party propaganda and agitation, a role that encouraged his growing interest in the arts, and especially in theatre and film. Under his enthusiastic tutelage, not only was Korean cinema revamped, renewed and made to glorify the activities of his father, but an entirely new type of live entertainment, the Korean revolutionary opera, was born.

At a special party meeting at the Pyongyang Film Studios, held to inaugurate his son as the mentor of Korean filmmakers and artists, Kim Il Sung told his directors that Korean art (in all its forms) should depict and dramatize two great historical events above all: the anti-Japanese struggle of the 1930s, and the traumatic Korean War of 1950 to 1953. These themes not only lay at the heart of numerous historical films made in the DPRK between the mid-1960s and late 1980s, but also formed the heroic backdrop for the five great revolutionary operas of the early 1970s.

The revolutionary opera was a particularly dynamic medium through which to relate tales and inculcate Korean audiences with a sense of Juche. Aiming to supersede the ‘anti-revolutionary’, aristocratic style of both European and traditional Korean opera, Kim Jong Il introduced several new Juche-based elements into these mass spectacles. They would contain songs sung in verses or stanzas, in the style of Korean folk ballads. More significantly, they made copious use of the pangchang. These off-stage solos, duets and choruses served several purposes; they narrated key parts of the story, projected a character’s inner voice and thoughts with particular revolutionary intensity, and set the dramatic mood and atmosphere of the tale. These new techniques rendered Korean revolutionary opera particularly accessible to a mass audience, jettisoning the alienating, distancing effect of traditional ‘static’ operatic performance and complementing the aims and role of Korean socialist cinema. Through pangchang, symbolic Korean historical characters could truly reach out from the stage to members of their audience, creating an especially strong link between the emotions of these revolutionary characters and the mood of their spectators.

Featuring stirring music and a particularly passionate, grandiose style of performance, Korean revolutionary opera served to not only remind Koreans of the horrific experiences of their fellow countrymen forty years earlier, but to transfer a dramatic, patriotic spirit from the stage to the everyday lives and thoughts of those in the seats of the auditorium. Just as the torch of Juche ‘came to life’ in rarefied form through the power and theatricality of these performances, so it would then continue to blaze in the streets, squares and grand buildings of Pyongyang and further afield as the spectators left the theatre to go about their daily lives.

All five revolutionary operas, ‘Sea of Blood’, ‘The Flower Girl’, ‘A True Daughter of the Party’, ‘Tell O’ The Forest’ and ‘The Song of Mount Kumgang’ exemplify the intense, melodramatic style of historical revolutionary tale which was being promoted during the early 1970s. ‘Sea of Blood’, based on a story written by Kim Il Sung himself, was released as a film in 1969 and later adapted into the first revolutionary opera in 1971, premiering at the Pyongyang Grand Theatre.

Pyongyang Grand Theatre, Revolutionary Opera Dress Rehearsal

Props and scenery in the wings of the National Drama Theatre

The auditorium is an enormous space with 2,200 seats, and the building houses one of the deepest stages in the city (it can apparently accommodate up to 700 performers at once).

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exploring pyongyang cinema The DPRK boasts four film studios; the Pyongyang Film Studios which is the main studio for the production of feature films, the April 25th Film Studio, the Korean Documentary Film Picture Studio, and SEK, the animation studio (whose work is especially well regarded; they have worked on many Western animated films, most notably contributing to Disney’s The Lion King). Pyongyang Film Studio has been producing films since the founding of the country in 1948 when they wrapped their first feature ‘My Home Village’.

Topics covered by films produced in the country include historical dramas set in the various Korean dynasties of the past, Korean War features such as ’The Regiment Behind Enemy Lines’ and ‘Order 027’ (familiar to anyone who has flown on Air Koryo’s newest plane as it features in the flight entertainment), family dramas such as ‘An Obliging Girl’ and the Disney-esque ‘A Family Basketball Team’, melodramas such as the “Korean Titanic” ‘Soul’s Protest’ and even comedies such as the famous ‘O, Youth’.

Taedongmun Cinema

Taedongmun Cinema

Pyongyang International House of Cinema

This striking building was completed in 1955, and was one of the first socialist cinemas in Korea, its lavish colonnaded entrance area and ornate sculpture work revealing the influence of Soviet post-war design upon 1950s Pyongyang construction projects.

This building, which sits on Yanggak Island very close to the Yanggakdo International Hotel, was built in 1989 in a striking circular style, and houses three film theatres which can accommodate 300, 600 and 2000 spectators respectively. Its large entrance hall, featuring distinctive examples of late-1980s interior design, provides a sense of cohesion and central focal point for the complex, one in which spectators can come together from the different theatres when the building is playing host to large events such as the biennial Pyongyang International Film Festival (PIFF).

Since 2002 Pyongyang Internatonional Film Festival has been run as a true international festival welcoming films from around the world; previously the event was reserved for ‘non-aligned and other developing countries’. Koryo Tours has worked closely with the festival organisers to expand and improve the range of films shown at the festival and thus seen by large numbers of the DPRK population. Koryo Tours have arranged for many films from around the world to be entered in the competition, the most well-known include ‘Bend it like Beckham’ ‘Mr. Bean’, ‘The March of the Penguins’, and ‘Bride and Prejudice’. We also take our tourists to the festival and are able to attend the main ceremonies as well as see Korean and international films with a local audience.

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the flower girl special introduction 1972, 132 mins

This film is regarded as an immortal classic Kkoppun sells flowers to earn money for the medicine of her mother who has fallen sick from slavery as landlord Pae’s servant. In spite of her devotion, her mother dies lamenting the deplorable world and leaving all alone Kkoppun and her little sister Sun Hui who got blind by the cruelty of the landlady. Kkoppun sets out on a long journey to see her brother who was unjustly thrown into prison years before. There she hears that her brother is dead. Quite hopeless, she returns home for her little sister only to find her missing. Hearing that her sister was lured away by the landlord, she protests against the landlord. But she is severely beaten and locked in a store.

On the other hand, her brother Chol Ryong who joined the Korean Revolutionary Army after his escape from the prison, stops over at a mountain hut near the village.

There he finds Sun Hui who was rescued from death by the owner of the hut. He encourages the villagers to finish off the landlord and his minions and saves her sister Kkoppun.

Kkoppun follows her brother to join the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle led by Kim Il Sung.

This film was awarded with the special prize and the special medal in the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival of former Czech-Slovakia in Juche 61 (1972).

Description above from the book: ‘Korea Film’ – published in 2008 by Korea Film Export & Corporation.

The Flower Girl is the only DPRK movie that can be considered to be at all popular outside of the countryas it is reasonably well known in China having been shown in cinemas and on television in the 1970s as well as performed on many occasions by visiting revolutionary opera troupes from North Korea. A great many older people and those who grew up during the Cultural Revolution in the PRC know all about this film and remember it fondly, as the representations of the miserable life of those living under oppressive and craven landlords in the 1930s during the period of Japanese occupation was a common theme in revolutionary China at the same time.

Most of the film depicts a series of utterly demoralizing events, but the heroine still perseveres with her attempts to find a better way for herself and her family. What makes this film even more significant to Koreans in the North is that it is adapted from a work written by Kim Il Sung in the 1930s and is considered a timeless classic whose message is as relevant now as at any time. Almost all North Koreas will have seen this movie and a large group statue exists at the entrance to the Pyongyang Film Studios depicting the DPRK’s Great Leader with the cast and crew of this very film, clearly establishing it as the most important movie ever made in North Korea.

In addition to being frequently shown as a movie this story is also the most popular of the five Revolutionary Operas in DPRK, and is performed frequently in Pyongyang and other cities around the country.

education & culture

In order to be a good Korean socialist, it was important not only to live in a monumental, grandiose city and to attend similarly grandiose cultural performances, but also to be educated in the socialist way of living, as well as to become literate and numerate.

Many notable buildings designed in Pyongyang since independence aimed to tackle the widespread illiteracy and political ignorance which the Japanese left in their wake. Following independence, Korean socialist leaders set about putting in place institutions which would rapidly build up Pyongyang citizens’ level of literary, as well as their cultural and political aptitude.

The first post-independence task was to create a new, educated class of socialist leaders and technocrats, and to that end construction of Kim Il Sung University began immediately after independence under Soviet guidance, the main building being constructed between 1946 and 1948 in grand neoclassical Stalinist style.

The campus and buildings of the university provide an excellent example of the progression of Pyongyang’s architecture, running the full gauntlet from post-war neoclassicism through to 1980s high rise brutalism, and finally to a light, modern two storey glass-ceilinged swimming pool completed in 2009.

Grand People’s Study House as seen from Kim Il Sung Square

Lecture hall at the Grand People’s Study House

The Korean Workers’ Party’s continued attempts to inculcate socialist values into its young population in the 1980s began with the Grand People’s Study House (1982). This building represents a bold attempt to bring learning, reading and socialist consciousness to the heart of the Korean capital in the form of an enormous building combining late socialist grandiosity with traditional Korean style, the latter very much in evidence in its landmark green roof. This huge 10-storey building features a grand central atrium, as well as numerous lecture halls and unique architectural features. Its huge balcony provides a commanding view of Kim Il Sung Square and its impressive symmetrical design. From here one can see the heavy neo-classicism of the government buildings which surround the square, and also get a sense of the axis across the Taedong river stretching to the iconic Juche Tower on the opposite bank.

The Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace opened in 1989 and features one of the most striking post-modern designs in the city. Situated on the edge of the Kwangbok residential district constructed for the Youth Festival of 1989, this building dominates the area and consists of a huge semi-circular front, representing the enveloping arms of a loving, nurturing mother. It features copious use of glass and modernist curves, flanked by full-length murals depicting triumphant Korean socialist youth gazing ecstatically into the future.

This building has a large outer courtyard, complete with fountains and sculptures, as well as impressive interior spaces and an imposing entrance hall with marble columns, circular terraces and long, modernist ceiling lights. The similarity to late Soviet architecture will not be missed by those who have travelled in the former Soviet Union.

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sports & health

Another important aspect of becoming socialist was an emphasis on physical wellbeing and discipline, in order to ensure health in mind and body and to become ‘at one’ with manual work and the demands of socialist production.

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The swimming pool at the Changwang Health Complex, one of Pyongyang’s premiere centres for sports and health. It was constructed between 1981 and 1986.

The impressive sports complex (the ‘city of sports’) on Chongchun Street, built between 1988 and 1996, initially for the World Youth Festival of 1989. This consists of numerous gymnasia, a football stadium, and separate halls for numerous sports such as volleyball, badminton, weightlifting and taekwondo.

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museums & transport

Museums were primary tools for the transmission of the revolutionary message to the Korean people, as well as to foreign visitors. Pyongyang’s museums were designed as centres where Koreans would learn not only about their own history and society but, crucially, how to think about it. The buildings themselves, always imposing and often brutalist in their style, as well as massive in their scale, emphasise the importance of the information being imparted, and their layout and display arrangements are meant to lead to certain specific understandings and conceptualisations of events and history.

Pyongyang’s largest and newest museum complex, the Three Revolutions Exhibition, opened in 1992, and featuring highly futuristic monuments and designs, including a planet-shaped silver sphere, with Saturn-like rings surrounding it, and a remarkable interactive exhibit dedicated to the DPRK’s satellite programme.

Pyongyang Metro These images show Pyongyang’s underground ‘museums’, where interior layout and displays of revolutionary history in the socialist-realist style combine with daily practicality and socialist efficiency in the form of the mass transportation system.

Its construction began in 1973.

The stations showcase grandiose design and interactive wall displays, reminiscent of the opulent interiors of stations on the Moscow Metro built during the late-Stalin period.

Pyongyang Metro Museum Established several years after the opening of the Pyongyang metro system in 1980.

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Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum Pyongyang’s premier historical museum, the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, was opened in 1974 and featured austere, grandiose exterior and huge exposition halls.

These contain a mixture of original wood panelling and marble, as well as one of the DPRK’s most remarkable dioramas depicting a dramatic battle scene from the Korean War. This original museum is replete with socialistrealist paintings and designs depicting the story of this pivotal war. In July 2013 the museum moved to a brand-new building nearby, which features all-new displays and exhibition halls, and extremely impressive model work and statues.

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Outside the Kumsusam Memorial Palace of the Sun

korean architecture before 1945

Tomb of King Kongmin The beautiful Tomb of King Kongmin, the twin-domed tomb of the 31st King of the Koryo Dynasty (918 - 1392 AD) and his wife which remained largely undamaged during the Korean War. The tomb is situated near Kaesong city, which lies 7km from the DMZ.

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The old city of Kaesong

Kaesong Koryo Museum, which is an old Confucian University

Minsok Folk Hotel, housed in a traditional Korean set of houses arranged around courtyards, and dating from the Li dynasty (1392 - 1910).

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ARCHITECTURE TOUR

12th - 19th April 2014 EUR 1980 | Flight in / Flight Out This tour will take us to the highlights of the DPRK’s architecture, allowing us to delve into the design of the unique modern city of Pyongyang and the beautiful traditional buildings of Kaesong. We will have access to many buildings not usually open to tourist groups, and will listen to lectures from Korean architects and interior designers at many of the locations we visit, learning a tremendous amount about both the functions and the history of Pyongyang’s remarkable buildings. This will be both an architectural and a historical journey through North Korea’s urban development like no other.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Detailed tour of the magnificent Kim Il Sung Square and its neo-classical surround, built 1954-5 Grand Monuments to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, built 1972, 2012 Visit to the new residential district around Mansudae Street A full tour of the interior of the People’s Palace of Culture, built in 1974 and one of the best examples of 1970s socialist monumentality in the city Moranbong Theatre, Pyongyang’s first socialist theatre, featuring classic post-war neoclassical design, built 1946 Exterior and interior tour of Pyongyang Grand Theatre, one of Pyongyang’s landmark buildings, built in 1960 in a mixture of modernist and traditional styles Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, built in a grandiose neoclassical style in 1946 for orphans of heroes who had perished in the antiJapanese struggle Kumsusan Memorial Palace of the Sun, built 1977. The former seat of government of Kim Il Sung and now the mausoleum where he and his son lie on display. One of the DPRK’s most impressive neoclassical buildings A full tour of the Grand People’s Assembly Hall, built in late-socialist neoclassical style in 1984, and featuring sumptuous, atmospheric interiors Pyongyang Architecture Institute, featuring fascinating paintings, plans and photographs which tell the story of Pyongyang’s post-war reconstruction A full tour of the Chongnyon Hotel, a striking 1980s Pyongyang hotel built for the World Festival of Communist Youth and Students, held in Pyongyang in 1989 A full tour of the campus and buildings of Kim Il Sung University, the DPRK’s highest seat of learning, with buildings opened between 1945 and 2009 The iconic Ryugyong Hotel. A chance for a close-up view of the newly-completed 104-storey pyramid-shaped hotel, incomplete for many years Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace, opened in 1989 and featuring one of the most striking post-modern designs in the city A full interior tour of Pyongyang’s distinctive Ice Rink, completed in 1981 and consisting of a conical modernist structure Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, originally opened in 1974 and featuring an austere, grandiose exterior and huge exposition halls Pyongyang International House of Cinema, built in 1989 in a striking circular style and housing three theatres A full visit to the brutalist Pyongyang Metro Museum, established soon after the opening of the Pyongyang Metro system in 1980 All the celebratory activities held to mark the 102nd birthday of President Kim Il Sung NEW! The first ever visit to the interior of a Pyongyang apartment for foreign tourists.

TOUR FEE INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING: • • • • • •

Flight Beijing-Pyongyang-Beijing All meals on the tour except on the train out of DPRK – see below Hotel accommodation All entry fees Two guides and a driver per group All transportation in DPRK

NOT INCLUDED IN THE TOUR FEE: • • • • • • • • •

Optional single room supplement of EUR 40 per night Spending money for drinks and souvenirs DPRK visa fee EUR 50 Entry fee to the Marathon (TBC - if applicable) EUR 50 surcharge for the plane to Beijing Tip for the guides (approx EUR 20-25 total) Entry tickets for Mass Games and special events if applicable – for example Revolutionary Opera if being staged, or a visit to the funfair The lift up the Juche Tower EUR 5 Meals will have a complimentary beer but you will have to pay for extra drinks above those provided. If you are vegetarian or have special dietary requirements then please inform us beforehand

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Architecture Tour itinerary Saturday April 12th: Arrival and Orientation After arriving at the airport, we move immediately to Pyongyang’s most impressive public space, as we begin to trace the early redevelopments of central Pyongyang following the destruction of the Korean War. We will walk around the grand central space of Kim Il Sung Square, and examine the features of the central government buildings around it.

We will then go on walk along both Sungri Street (formerly Stalin Street), and Chollima Street (1953), the two earliest main post-Korean War streets in Pyongyang, ending up on the top of Mansu Hill at the Chollima Monument (unveiled in 1961).

Following these visits, it will be off to the iconic twin-towered Koryo Hotel, Pyongyang’s first real international hotel, built in the late socialist style in 1985. We will check in here for the night, and have dinner in its restaurant.

Sunday April 13th: Political Spaces and Monuments After breakfast, we will begin our first full day with a look at many of the grand construction projects of the 1970s and 80s, when much of the Pyongyang’s current monumental centre took shape.

We will first spend some time at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace of the Sun built in 1977 as Kim Il Sung’s seat of government and now his mausoleum, as well as that of his son. This is one of Pyongyang’s grandest buildings, one which exemplifies the growing importance of the political leadership, and its representation, in Pyongyang architecture during the 1970s.

We will go on to view the Grand Monuments to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill, originally built to mark the 60th birthday of Kim Il Sung in 1972, and recently expanded to include a statue of Kim Jong Il in 2012.

We will then move on to visit the Tower of the Juche Idea, unveiled in 1982 as the ultimate architectural celebration of Juche ideology, and erected to mark Kim Il Sung’s 70th birthday.

After a stop at the celebratory Arch of Triumph (1982), we will visit one of Pyongyang’s most important political buildings, the Grand People’s Assembly Hall, built in late-socialist neoclassical style in 1984. We will take a full tour of this building.

The purpose-built, gargantuan Kwangbok and Thongil Residential Areas will be next on our tour OR (you choose) This morning we head straight for Kim Il Sung Stadium for the PYONGYANG

MARATHON; whether you are watching or taking part this is the highlight of the day.

The Marathon has never been open to amateur runners before and only a small number of foreign runners have ever taken part.

You can do a half or a full marathon, running through the streets of Pyongyang with hundreds of local runners, an amazing experience to be sure!

During the Marathon event those who are not running can either watch from the streets or attend a local football match inside the Kim Il Sung stadium (also where the marathon starts and finishes) there is usually a large crowd at this time of year so a good atmosphere and some amazing photos can be expected!

After lunch in a local restaurant, we will move to the striking Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Monument, with its superb socialist-realist sculptures of Korean soldiers charging into battle, as well as the equally impressive Party Foundation Monument, completed in 1995 as the ultimate sign of the Korean Workers’ Party’s power and prestige.

We will follow this with a visit to the interior of a Pyongyang apartment, and have the opportunity to examine the design and layout of a typical example of Pyongyang mass housing for the first time, as well as to talk to its residents about their home.

We will also visit the Arch of Reunification (2001), and the shining new tower blocks and multi-storey houses of the comfortable Mansudae Street (2009).

Following this, we will go for a well-earned dinner at a local restaurant, before spending another night at the Koryo Hotel.

Monday April 14th: Major Cultural Establishments We will start our tour viewing the ornate neoclassical exterior and beautifully proportioned interior of the Moranbong Theatre (opened 1946), situated on a hill in lush parkland at the entrance to Moran Park.

We then move on to the period of ‘socialist design with Korean characteristics’, visiting the Pyongyang Grand Theatre (opened 1960), a huge statement of socialist cultural superiority situated in the very centre of Pyongyang.

We continue our journey with a visit to the vast People’s Palace of Culture, built on Chollima Street in 1974.

After lunch we will look at grand political and cultural centres built and opened around Pyongyang in the 1970s and 80s.

The two best examples of these are the April 25 House of Culture (built 1975) and the Mansudae Art Theatre (completed 1976),

both of which we will visit.

We will then see the Central Youth Hall (completed 1989) and then visit and hopefully see a performance at either the People’s Army Circus, opened in 1964 and constructed in a distinctive circular shape with a domed roof, or the ultra-postmodernist Pyongyang Circus, built in 1989, and consisting of five halls each with a striking hexagonal roof.

Along with the equally modernist, glass-covered East Pyongyang Grand Theatre (built 1989), which we will also see, present two of the most dynamic designs in the city.

We will go first to the Chongnyon Hotel, built in 1989 for the World Festival of Youth and Students.

It is notable for its striking design, combining a brutalist high-rise building with cylindrically-shaped low-rise sections at the front and rear. The hotel also contains classic 1980s interiors, and we will have a drink in its rooftop restaurant.

We will then have dinner in one of Pyongyang’s landmark eateries, the Okryu Restaurant, opened in 1961.

Tuesday April 15th: Education and Culture DPRK NATIONAL HOLIDAY: 102nd BIRTHDAY OF PRESIDENT KIM IL SUNG. We will visit Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, built in a stately neoclassical style in 1946 for orphans of heroes who had perished in the anti-Japanese struggle.

We will then move on to Pyongyang’s highest seat of learning, Kim Il Sung University. The campus and buildings of the university provide an excellent example of the progression of Pyongyang’s architecture, running the full gauntlet from post-war Stalinist neoclassicism through to 1980s high rise brutalism, and finally to a light, twostorey glass-ceilinged swimming pool completed in 2009.

Followed by a visit to the elegant neoclassical Taedongmun Cinema in central Pyongyang. This striking building was completed in 1955, and was one of the first socialist cinemas in Korea, its lavish colonnaded entrance area and ornate sculpture work revealing the influence of Soviet post-war design upon 1950s Pyongyang construction projects.

Constructed in a mixture of styles which combine simpler socialist neo-classicism with a striking 1960s modernism, the enormous Pyongyang Schoolchildren’s Palace boasts a grand driveway leading up to its entrance, as well as full length murals depicting Korean youth in the 1960s socialist style. We will have a tour of this building, one of the landmark 1960s buildings in central Pyongyang, and may have a chance to see a performance in the theatre.

After lunch we will take a walk in Moranbong Park. This is a favourite place for locals and during the holiday periods. We also expect to see a mass dance to be taking place to mark the occasion of the 102nd birthday of President Kim Il Sung.

University students dress in their finest and gather together in various public spots around Pyongyang to dance together (a great time for young couples to meet for the first time).

We will go on to visit the Grand People’s Study House (1982) and take a full tour of this huge 10-storey building. We will also have a chance to see the roof (which consists of 34 separate pieces) from the huge balcony.

From this vantage point we will be able to get a sense of the wonderfully symmetrical design of Kim Il Sung Square, and to take in the heavy neoclassicism of the government buildings which surround it, as well as the axis across the Taedong river stretching to the Juche Tower on the opposite bank.

We will have a chance to compare the Pyongyang Schoolchildren’s Palace, with its 1960s design, with its counterpart further out of town in the form of the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace, opened in 1989.

Situated on the edge of the Kwangbok residential district, this building dominates the area and consists of a huge semi-circular front, representing the enveloping arms of a loving, nurturing mother.

We will take a detailed tour of this building’s exterior, complete with fountains and landscaped garden, and of its impressive interior spaces and imposing entrance hall with marble columns, circular terraces and long, modernist ceiling lights.

Following visits to Mansudae Art Studio and the Pyongyang Architecture Institute.

We will round off the day with a visit to the Pyongyang International House of Cinema, also built in 1989 in a striking circular style and housing three film theatres.

This complex plays host to the Pyongyang International Film Festival. Following drinks in the revolving restaurant of the nearby Yanggakdo Hotel (1995), which offers magnificent views of Pyongyang’s skyline and the river Taedong, we will have dinner in a local restaurant and return to the Koryo Hotel for the night.

Wednesday April 16th: Sports and Health We begin our tour with a visit to the Indoor Stadium, completed in 1973 in a striking mixture of neo-classical and modernist styles. We will then drop in at Pyongyang’s flagship health facility, the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, opened in 1980 and featuring a striking late socialist brutalist design and grand entranceway.

From here we go on to visit one of Pyongyang’s most distinctive buildings, the Ice Rink, completed in 1981 and consisting of a conical modernist structure designed to resemble a skater’s cap.

Following lunch, we will move on to the Kim Il Sung Stadium, opened in 1969 as the Moranbong Stadium and substantially renovated and renamed in 1982.

We will then drop in at one of the city’s largest structures, the May Day Stadium.

This was completed in 1989 and consists of 16 arched glass roofs, allowing the building to resemble a flower blooming or a parachute which has just landed.

This is where the spectacular Mass Games performances are held each year between July and October. The stadium seats an incredible 150,000 spectators, and its stage can easily accommodate 100,000 performers.

Our next stop of the day is the impressive sports complex (the ‘city of sports’) on Chongchun Street, built between 1988 and 1996.

This consists of numerous gymnasia, a football stadium, and separate halls for numerous sports such as volleyball, badminton, weightlifting and taekwondo.

As well as visiting these sporting facilities, we will drop in at the Changgwang Health and Recreation Complex (built 1981-86).

Here we will have a chance to get a haircut in the hair salon, which preserves its complete original furniture and equipment from 1981.

Following this, we will have dinner at the Chongnyu, built in 1981 in a modernist maritime style. We will dine on speciality cuisine in this restaurant, which contains sumptuous interior design over its four storeys and benefits from a beautiful riverside location. We will then return to the Koryo Hotel for the night.

Thursday April 17th: Museums and Transport First on our tour is the Pyongyang Art Gallery, opened in 1960 and housed in a neo-classical building in a prestigious location on Kim Il Sung Square.

Next is a visit to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, opened in 1974 and preserving its austere, grandiose exterior and huge exposition halls.

We will then go on to visit Pyongyang’s underground ‘museums’, where interior layout and displays of revolutionary history in the socialist-realist style combine with daily practicality and socialist efficiency in the form of the mass transportation system, the Pyongyang Metro.

Following lunch, we continue to the Pyongyang Metro Museum.

We will finish this day at one of Pyongyang’s largest and newest museum complexes, the Three Revolutions Exhibition, opened in 1992, and featuring highly futuristic monuments and designs, including a planet-shaped silver sphere, and a remarkable interactive exhibit dedicated to the DPRK’s satellite programme.

We will then drive south to the city of Kaesong for an exploration of the DPRK’s pre-Korean War architecture, a journey of 2.5 hours down the (almost) dead-straight Reunification Highway. We will stay overnight at Minsok Folk Hotel, housed in a traditional Korean set of houses arranged around courtyards, and dating from the Li dynasty.

Friday Apr 18th: Korean Architecture before 1945 Following a traditional breakfast in the Minsok’s charming traditional restaurant, our first visit is to Panmunjom and the DMZ. It is possible to go right up to the huts that straddle the demarcation line, and to ascend to a balcony for a panoramic view of the border area and over into the South.

We then drive back into the city of Kaesong and visit the Kaesong Koryo Museum, which is housed in a beautiful old Confucian University.

We will then have lunch in a local restaurant in the centre of Kaesong’s old town, before taking a guided walk around the city’s charming old streets and courtyards.

After lunch we will ascend Janam Hill, situated in the heart of the city. There is also the traditional Kwangbok pavilion here, and the hill’s rocky edge affords great views over the old part of the city, as well as of the huge edifice of the city’s Schoolchildren’s Palace, opened in 1961.

We then drive to the beautiful Tomb of King Kongmin, the twin-domed tomb of the 31st King of the Koryo Dynasty (918 - 1392 AD) and his wife which remained largely undamaged during the Korean War. Following this, we return to Pyongyang for drinks in the deluxe Potonggang Hotel.

This Pyongyang institution dates from 1973, and has been thoroughly renovated inside to the highest standard currently available in Pyongyang. After finishing drinks by the river, we proceed to the excellent Duck BBQ restaurant for dinner, before transferring to the Koryo Hotel for our final night.

Saturday April 19th: Departure This morning we will transfer to Pyongyang airport for our morning Air Koryo flight to Beijing, where our tour will end.

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koryo tours Responsible Tourism & Engagement

At Koryo Tours, we have always been firm believers in responsible tourism. Alongside organising tours we also facilitate humanitarian and cultural engagement projects which benefit the people of North Korea. In the past we have worked on various different humanitarian appeals from bakeries to braille dictionaries.

Koryo Group (Koryo Tours and Koryo Studio) is a British-run company based in Beijing specialising in DPRK (North Korea) Travel, Cultural Exchange, Art, Film, Publications, and Merchandise. We are very proud of the work we do in Korea and our expertise is based on the monthly visits we have made to the country since 1993.

At Koryo Tours we thrive on exchanging ideas to give the North Korean people the opportunities that interaction brings. Whether you are simply wanting to visit the country, run a sporting event, art show, film screening, or just want to know more then please contact us. We love a challenge and our list of achievements are testament to both our efforts and expertise as well as that of our Korean partner. This list includes; the first western documentaries filmed in the DPRK, opening up new tourist destinations, sports exchanges, the first ever nationwide screening of a Western feature film, the first co-production of a romantic comedy feature film, being the first travel company to take in over 2,000 tourists a year, commissioning the first pieces of Korean art for international exhibitions.

Koryo Tours is recognised as being the only North Korea travel specialists and provide tourists and North Koreans alike with the greatest opportunity of exchange. Our cultural projects have the support of the British Government.

These all make up the first small steps to engagement.

- NICHOLAS BONNER, Founder & Director of Koryo Tours

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All photos ©Koryo Tours and ©Joerg Heil for Koryo Tours Designed by: Simo Herold Edited by: Daniel Levitsky & Vicky Mohieddeen Koryo Tours The World’s Leading DPRK (North Korea) Travel Specialist Since 1993.

Travel to the DPRK with Koryo Tours http://koryogroup.com

This magazine was produced by Koryo Tours exclusively for the Architecture Tour in 2014.

Contact Koryo Tours : Tel: + 86 10 6416 7544 Fax: + 86 10 6415 2653 Contact us on Skype: koryo.tours Email: info@koryogroup.com www.koryogroup.com

Koryo Tours

Please contact us with any questions regarding tours to North Korea, we are more than happy to answer any questions you may have and will be sure to reply to all enquiries promptly.

- The world’s leading DPRK (North Korea) Travel Specialist since 1993

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