Tens of thousands of performers in Pyongyang took part in the first of North Korea’s spectacular Mass Games propaganda displays for this year, but the show left leader Kim Jong-un unimpressed, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported yesterday.
The “Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance” features enormous numbers of people — mostly students and schoolchildren — in precision synchronized moves. Behind them, thousands of children turn the colored pages of books in sequence to create an ever-changing backdrop of giant images rippling across one side of the stadium.
However, Kim was underwhelmed by the production, titled “The Land of the People.”
Photo: AFP / KCNA via KNS
After the show “he called creators of the performance and seriously criticized them for their wrong spirit of creation and irresponsible work attitude,” the North’s official news agency said.
Noting that artists “have a very important duty in socialist cultural construction,” Kim “set forth important tasks for correctly implementing the revolutionary policy of our Party on literature and art,” KCNA added.
It was not clear what had infuriated the leader. Kim was accompanied to the performance by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, and his sister and close aide Kim Yo-jong, it said.
It was the first time it had mentioned Kim Yo-jong for nearly two months, since the Hanoi summit between Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump broke up in February without reaching agreement over sanctions relief and the North’s nuclear program.
Among the senior government officials present was Kim Yong-chol, KCNA said.
He is the North’s counterpart to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the nuclear talks, and South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo last week reported that he had been sent to a labor camp after the no-deal in Hanoi.
Participants in the Mass Games rehearse for months ahead of the performances and according to travel companies, “The Land of the People” was expected to run for five months, into October.
However, Kim’s verdict on the show may see it reworked.
KCNA only released one image of the performance itself at the cavernous May Day Stadium, showing thousands of flag-waving performers packed around giant flowers on the arena floor.
“Long live Korea forever!” the backdrop spelled out over a bed of flowers, as red fireworks shot into the air.
Reports said that as well as portraits of the North’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and successor, Kim Jong-il, the backdrop images also featured one of Kim Jong-un.
Unlike his predecessors, he is rarely depicted in portraits and no statues of him are known to exist.
A section that appeared in last year’s display on the Panmunjom summit and showing Kim Jong-un with South Korean President Moon Jae-in was cut, reports said.
Moon was instrumental in brokering the first US-North Korean summit in Singapore in June last year and attended a Mass Games show in September during his third summit with Kim, when he addressed the crowd.
However, negotiations have stalled since the breakdown in Hanoi.
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