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After three years of relentless air attacks
in which more napalm bombs fell than during the entire Vietnam War, a
truce was signed on 27 July 1953 between representatives of North Korea
and the United Nations. The war was disastrous. More than 2.5 million
people, most of them citizens, lost their lives. The North Korean dead
numbered 1,130,000 (11.1% of the country's population). More than 80%
of the factories, public buildings and transport systems had been destroyed
and 50% of the homes lay in ruins. In the capital city alone, Pyongyang,
more than 1000 bombs per square kilometre fell, and by the summer of 1953
there were just two buildings left standing in a city that had been home
to 400,000.
The new Pyongyang was built on the ruins of old Pyongyang. And although
the authorities played with the idea of building the capital elsewhere
and leaving the ruins as a reminder of the horrors of what the North Koreans
call the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War, it was decided for historical
and symbolic reasons to build the city on the original site.
It was to be a modern city, a symbol of a new nation - the Democratic
People's Republic of North Korea was established in 1948 - with an eventful
history. But unlike Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil founded at around
the same time, Pyongyang never became an icon of modern architecture.
No renowned architectural figures were involved and, importantly, whereas
modern architecture symbolised freedom in the West, western eyes saw modern
architecture built under socialist regimes as a symbol of a fake world
and repression.
Over the years Pyongyang developed into a huge monument, a memorial to
the brave warriors in the Korean War who fought off the Japanese oppressors,
and a memorial to those who rebuilt the country. But above all, it is
a monument to the Great Leader, Son of the Nation, Kim Il Sung, who liberated
the Korean people from their oppressors and then led the way with the
Juche Idea he devised and with his 'instructions on the spot'.
In 1994 the Great Leader died, but he is still omnipresent in daily life.
The Korean calendar, also known as Juche, started in 1912, the year the
Son of the Nation was born, and his image is everywhere: on mosaics, wall
paintings, and on the badges worn on the chest by every North Korean.
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