Real Picture of the DPRK

The attention of the international community is focused on the fast-growing DPRK.

"Your Eyes Are Not Deceiving You":

In October last year, at the renovated Kaeson Youth Park in Pyongyang, a CNN correspondent reported, describing the enchanting nocturnal view of the city: Your eyes are not deceiving you; you are seeing socialist North Korea.

The Western media has so far portrayed the capital of the DPRK as a dark city at night. To the surprise of audiences, a dazzling scene appeared on the screen, people swarming round in a brightly lit park and modern amusements giving them thrills and spills.

Pyongyang is called a city in a park. Indeed, the city abounds with parks and pleasure grounds, which overflow with joy and laughter day and night.

At night it is all the more spectacular. A giant parachute sits on Rungna Island in the picturesque Taedong River. The structure of a unique design is May Day Stadium, which was the venue of the grand mass gymnastics and artistic performance Arirang. At nights the splendid extravaganza drew audiences into the world of fantasy and mystery. It was registered in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest gymnastic display.

On holidays or significant anniversaries a stunning display of fireworks lights up the sky over the city, Kim Il Sung Square and the Tower of the Juche Idea in particular. On the nights of ordinary days people are seen walking and sitting under the bright lightings in streets and by the Taedong River in central Pyongyang. "Don't Advance, Night of Pyongyang" is a favourite song of the Korean people. Singing and laughing can be heard in the newly built Mansudae Street and other residential districts at night, all looking like day.

Other aspects of life also exceed the expectation of the outside world. Okryu Restaurant sitting on the bank of the Taedong River serves Korea's traditional dishes, including the famous Pyongyang cold noodles, as well as turtle, sturgeon and other rare dishes. Delicacy houses which major in pizza and other world-renowned dishes are on the increase.

Excellent art performances are given at theatres in the city, such as the Pyongyang Grand Theatre, the Mansudae Art Theatre and the State Theatre. Korean artistes have reproduced famous plays of foreign countries, including A Dream of Red Mansions, The Soldier under Neon Light, The Butterfly Lovers and Yevgeny Onegin.
Another peculiar sight is women in traditional costumes, which make them look like lovely flowers.

The Tower of the Juche Idea, the Arch of Triumph, the Grand People's Study House, the People's Palace of Culture and other monumental structures built in Korean-style architecture add splendour to the city.

Worthy of special note is the fact that all the Korean people, irrespective of class and social stratum, enjoy the cultural and aesthetic life to their heart's content. A wide spectrum of people take part, according to profession and aptitude, in national festivals for artistes, calligraphers and painters, singing contests, quizzes and sports events like the Grand Bull Prize National Ssirum Contest. One of the common sights in the city is people, young and old, men and women, dancing merrily in squares or pleasure grounds.

This is the real picture of socialist Korea, which the CNN correspondent wanted to show his audiences.

Prosperity on the Doorstep of Socialist Korea:

"Korea does what it is determined to do!" "Break through the cutting edge" "Keep your feet firmly planted on this land and look out over the world" "Everything for the improving of people's standard of living!" are some of the slogans put up in different places of the country. They represent the aspiration, will and optimism of the Korean people who are steaming ahead towards the goal of a great, prosperous and powerful nation.

The DPRK is already recognized as a power in politico-ideological and military aspects. Now it strives for economic prosperity to make itself powerful in all aspects. Recent developments in this country show that it is not a distant future-the launch of two self-made artificial earth satellites, acquisition of nuclear capability, establishment of a new iron and steel production system that does not rely on coking coal and scrap iron, and mass-production of vinalon fibre and fertilizer by using local raw materials.

Sturgeon and ostrich farming is in full swing, offering a good prospect for improved people's diet. The world-class Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm stretches far and wide, heralding a rosy future of fruit farming.

The Taegyedo Tideland Reclamation Project was finished to link the islands off the west coast with the mainland. Earlier, foreign experts asserted that final damming up would not be successful unless the DPRK broke the gravity of the moon. But Korean builders finished the project on their own, reclaiming the tideland as large as the size of one county and bringing it under cultivation, thus redrawing the map of Korea.

A project for building 100 000 flats by 2012 is making rapid progress, changing the looks of Pyongyang as befits the capital of a great, prosperous and powerful country.
Experience all of these firsthand, and anyone would agree that prosperity of this socialist nation is close at hand.

De luxe hotels in Pyongyang and Hyangsan Hotel, Majon Hotel and other modern amenities in local provinces are waiting for curious foreigners.

As a Korean saying goes, to see once is better than to hear one hundred times. Don't be misled by the Western media, and see everything in this country with your own eyes. The DPRK is friendly to visitors from abroad.

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