| Host | Pyongyang, North Korea |
|---|---|
| Year | 1989 |
| Participants | 22,000 |
| Countries | 177 |
The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) was held from 1–8 July 1989 for 8 days, in Pyongyang, the capital of the North Korea. The World Federation of Democratic Youth had decided to celebrate its 13th festival there.
About 22,000 people from 177 countries attended the festival. This was the largest festival in its history in terms of the number of the participating countries.
For this event, North Korea constructed the monumental architectural projects such as Rungrado May Day Stadium, the world's largest stadium, which seats 150,000 people.
May Day Stadium was completed on May 1, 1989, in time to be used for the festival.
On July 1, 1989, about 22,000 young people from 177 countries gathered in the May Day Stadium, inaugurating the festival. For eight days, the participants took part in social, cultural, sports and political activities.
The slogan of the festival was "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship".
The South Korean government took steps to prohibit any South Korean from participating in this Pyongyang Festival, due to political considerations. But a female college student named Lim Su-Kyung attended the Pyongyang festival without any permission from the South Korean government. She got the nickname Flower of Unification, and became very famous worldwide during the Pyongyang festival. After her return to South Korea thorough Panmunjom, a village on the de facto border between North and South Korea, she was caught and was sent directly to jail by South Korean policemen.
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