Sep 23

North Korea: The Arch of Triumph (because everything’s bigger in the DPRK)

by in Asia, North Korea

There are a lot of monuments in Pyongyang, and as you soon learn, all revolve around the achievements of Kim Il-Sung. The first monument we visited was the Arch of Triumph. You probably think that this arch looks quite similar to that one in Paris, and you would be right, EXCEPT THIS ONE IS BIGGER AND TALLER! This “bigger and taller” obsession is something you become quite accustomed to when touring the DPRK, as there are plenty of buildings and monuments around Pyongyang that were built to shatter world records while simultaneously devouring a significant amount of the country’s GDP.

As for the history behind the Arch of Triumph, I found this Korean Central News Agency (the DPRK’s state news agency) article which perfectly summarizes its significance:

The stone monument was unveiled in April of Juche 71 (1982) in reflection of the deep desire of the whole Korean people to convey to the posterity the revolutionary feats of President Kim Il Sung, who had successfully achieved the historic cause of the liberation of the country and returned to Pyongyang in triumph.

The Arch of Triumph with 60m in height and 50.1m in facade width and 36.2m in side width has four stories. The first and second stories are separated with a balcony and the second, third and fourth stories have diminishing flat roofs.

The words of the revolutionary paean “Song of General Kim Il Sung” are carved in the middle of the arch. Also engraved there are Mt. Paektu, the ancestral mountain of Korea, and “Buglers of Guerilla Army”. Beneath them there are the words “1925″ and “1945″ reflecting the revolutionary history of the President shining along with the liberation of the country and sculptures on subsidiary themes are embossed.


The Arch of Triumph encourages the Korean people to the efforts to shine the immortal exploits of the President in the liberation of the country through generations and build at an early date a great, prosperous and powerful nation of Juche under the Songun revolutionary leadership of Kim Jong Il.

Right.

PinExt North Korea: The Arch of Triumph (because everythings bigger in the DPRK)
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Related posts:

  • North Korea: Warm welcome to the DPRK! When our tour group arrived in North Korea, I was a bit surprised to learn that in addition to our driver and three guides/minders, we would be accompanied by a cameraman who would be filming our entire trip. At first I thought this was for propaganda purposes (“Tune in tonight...
  • North Korea: Arch of Reunification The Arch of Reunification (or, Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification as I’ve also seen it called) is your typical North Korean monument: large, not particularly beautiful, and glorifying some event that either didn’t happen, or will likely never happen (according to the plan North Korea has devised,...
  • North Korea: The Itinerary Theoretically, if all goes according to plan and the North Korean government has approved my visa, this is my trip’s itinerary. I’m especially looking forward to the bowling. Tues 8th Sep AM: Bus from office to airport. PM: Flight JS152 from Beijing to Pyongyang, 13:00 departure, arrive Pyongyang 16:25, meet...

Tags: , , , ,

6 Responses to “North Korea: The Arch of Triumph (because everything’s bigger in the DPRK)”

  1. From Monopoly of Force:

    Very impressive, keep the pictures coming

    Posted on September 24, 2009 at 9:35 am #

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. North Korea: Arirang Festival Mass Games | At Home In The Wasteland - September 28, 2009

    [...] are the mass games, exactly? Well, it’s really just a continuation of the “everything’s bigger in the DPRK” theme I previously mentioned. Take 100,000 North Koreans, place them in the largest stadium in the world, [...]
  2. North Korea: Warm welcome to the DPRK! | At Home In The Wasteland - December 15, 2009

    [...] first clip is the intro to the DVD and footage from our visit to the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang (which is basically just us taking lots of [...]
  3. North Korea: The streets of Pyongyang | At Home In The Wasteland - March 5, 2010

    [...] the Arch of Triumph. The weird building in the background is the Ryugyong [...]
  4. North Korea: The streets of Pyongyang, Part II | At Home In The Wasteland - March 8, 2010

    [...] “Monument of Triumphal Speech” mural near the Arch of Triumph. [...]
  5. North Korea: The Ryugyong Hotel | At Home In The Wasteland - March 9, 2010

    [...] on the 105 story hotel first began in 1987. Because everything is bigger in the DPRK, it was to be the tallest hotel in the world. The Ryugyong was scheduled to open in time for the [...]

Leave a Reply