North Korea has held mass gymnastic games and performances since 1946. Increasingly lavish, the games have culminated in the national showpiece Arirang Mass Gymnastic and Artistic Performances—premiering in 2002 to coincide with ninetieth anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birthday, and held annually in Pyongyang's 150,000-seat May Day Stadium. The games are astonishing spectacles of precision, athleticism, teamwork, and showmanship involving 100,000 performers, giant video screens, lasers, fireworks, and an audience section of 20,000 to 40,000 students who hold up colored cards to form mosaics backdrop scenes on cue.

North Koreans standing before a sixty-five-foot bronze statue of Kim Il Sung on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang.

A park in downtown Pyongyang. Construction on the pyramid-shaped, 105-story Ryugyong Hotel, seen in the background, was halted four years after it had begun with no official explanation given. Originally planned as an international hotel, it has remained unfinished and unoccupied for more than 15 years.

The Mansudae Grand Monument on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang symbolizes the struggle and success of workers under a banner of the Korean Workers' Party.

The Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's Palace, a magnificent 690-room building featuring marble columns and massive chandeliers, opened in 1989 as a school for children who excel in the arts. Group classes feature instruction in music, dance, calligraphy, embroidery, Taekwondo, and a range of other performing arts, crafts, and sports. The school also serves as a showcase stop for tours and foreign dignitaries. Much of the music repertoire and art is focused on venerating North Korea's history and leadership.

A view down Thongil Street, Kaesong's main thoroughfare. While Pyongyang has light vehicular traffic, Kaesong had virtually none.

Sunrise on the DPRK's east coast.

North Korean farmers tend the fields near the Tumen River west of Namyang.

Copyright © 2007 by Mark Edward Harris.