AFP. 22 January 2002. North Korea to open up for "greatest event of mankind."
SEOUL -- North Korea will stage daily performances of a mass rally of 100,000 people as part of a two month long festival partly to celebrate key political anniversaries. The Stalinist state has invited foreign tourists to Pyongyang to see one of its renowned mass gymnastics displays, normally reserved for visiting foreign leaders or special occasions. But the invitation to the Arirang Festival has put the rival South in a dilemma over whether to let South Koreans attend the event or risk further cooling inter-Korean ties. A North Korean Website (www.dprkorea.com) said the centrepiece of the festival is a mass performance of 100,000 gymnasts and artists, which it said will will be regarded as "the greatest performance of the 21st century." Daily performances of the display will be held from April 29 to June 26 at the 150,000 capacity May 1 Stadium. Details of the performance have not been given but the North has hinted it would be a mixture of choreographed mass dances and acrobatics, and displays of background pictures by crowds on one side of the stadium. A similar rally was held for then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright when she visited Pyongyang for historic talks in October 2000. To modernise the traditional communist party display, laser lights will be added to put on what the North's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, decribed as the "greated event of humankind." "If you miss it, you would be regretful for the rest of your life," the daily said. Lee Chul-U, an official of the association of pro-Pyongyang Koreans living in Japan, indicated that Pyongyang had eased political overtones of the festival in order to make it more palatable for South Koreans and foreigners. "At first, the title of the performance was 'the Song for the First Sun' but on orders from leader Kim Jong-Il, it was changed into the present name, Arirang," he was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. Arirang is the most famous folk song for both Koreas. Kim Il-Sung, the North's founder leader, is often called "The First Sun". Contacts with the North are still banned in the rival South. Shin Ji-Ho of Samsung Economic Research Institute, an expert on North Korea, said that through Arirang festival, North Korea was seeking to project a message of peace. "It is also seeking to assure its people that the party proved right in predicting that the painful march of the 1990s would be over and they would enter a new era of hope," he said. The North described the widespread hunger of the 1990s, caused by natural disasters, as a painful march toward victory. 2002 will see key anniversaries in North Korea such as the 90th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-Sung, the 60th birthday of his son and successor Jong-Il and the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People's Army. "This year is too signicant in symbolism for North Korea to pass it unnoticed and it needs gala events to mark it," Shin said. Pyongyang is charging between 50 and 300 dollars for a seat at the festival performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
