Juche Tower

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Juche Tower
Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl 주체사상탑
Hancha 主體思想塔
Revised Romanization Juche Sasangtap
McCune–Reischauer Chuch'e Sasangt'ap

The Juche Tower (more formally, Tower of the Juche Idea) is a monument in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, named after the ideology of Juche introduced by its first leader Kim Il-Sung. Juche is a blend of autarky, self-reliance, nationalism, traditionalism and Marxism-Leninism.

Background

Completed in 1982, the Tower is sited on the eastern bank of the River Taedong, directly opposite Kim Il Sung Square on the western side of the river. It was made to commemorate Kim Il-Sung's 70th birthday. Although his son and successor Kim Jong-il is officially credited as its designer,[1] interviews with former North Korean officials contradict this assertion.[2]

The 170-metre (560 ft) structure is a four-sided tapering 150-metre (490 ft) spire – the tallest in granite – containing 25,550 blocks (365 × 70; one for each day of Kim Il Sung's life, excluding supplementary days), dressed in white stone with seventy dividers and capped with a 20-metre (66 ft)-high 45-ton illuminated metal torch. It is possible to ascend the tower by lift and there are wide views over Pyongyang from the viewing platform just below the torch. In the base of the tower, there are reception rooms where videos explaining the tower's ideological importance are sometimes shown. It is presumed to be modelled on the Washington Monument, which it surpasses in height by less than a meter.[3] The Juche Tower is the second tallest monumental column in the world after the San Jacinto Monument, which is 2.9 metres (9.5 ft) taller.

Associated with the tower is a 30-metre (98 ft)-high statue consisting of three idealised figures each holding a tool – a hammer (the worker); a sickle (the peasant); and a writing brush (the "working intellectual") – in a classic communistic style reminiscent of the Soviet statue Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. The three tools form the insignia on the flag of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. There are also six smaller groups of figures, each 10 metres (33 ft) high, that symbolize other aspects of Kim Il-Sung's ideology.

A wall carrying 82 "friendship plaques", claimed to be due to foreign supporters, stands near the Tower.

Gallery

  • Pyongyang JucheTower.jpg
  • Pyongyang Juche tower.JPG

  • View from tower

  • VOA report showing the view from the tower, and the elevator ride up.

Notes

  1. ↑ Coonan, Clifford (21 October 2006). "Kim Jong Il, the tyrant with a passion for wine, women and the bomb". The Independent. Retrieved 11 October 2008. 
  2. ↑ Martin, Bradly K. (2004). Under The Loving Care of The Fatherly Leader. Macmillan. p. 626. ISBN 0-312-32221-6. 
  3. ↑ McCormack, Gavan (2004). Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe. Nation Books. p. 59. ISBN 1-560-25557-9. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Juche Tower.

Coordinates: 39°1′3.52″N 125°45′48.05″E / 39.0176444°N 125.7633472°E / 39.0176444; 125.7633472

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