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Full name | The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium Pyongyang |
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Former names | Rungrado May Day Stadium |
Location | Rungra Island, Pyongyang, North Korea |
Coordinates | 39°02′59″N125°46′31″E / 39.04963°N 125.77537°E |
Capacity | 114,000 [1] |
Field size | Main pitch – 22,500 m2 (242,000 sq ft) Total floor space – over 207,000 m2 (2,230,000 sq ft) |
Surface | Artificial turf [2] |
Construction | |
Broke ground | 1986 |
Built | 1986–1989 |
Opened | 1 May 1989 |
Tenants | |
North Korea national football team North Korea women's national football team April 25 Sports Club |
Rungrado 1st of May Stadium | |
Chosŏn'gŭl | 릉라도5월1일경기장 |
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Hancha | |
Revised Romanization | Neungnado 5(o)-wol 1(ir)-il Gyeonggijang |
McCune–Reischauer | Rŭngrado Owŏl Iril Kyŏnggijang |
The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium occupying an area of 20.7 hectares (51 acres) on Rungra Island,Pyongyang,North Korea. It opened on 1 May 1989,with its first major event being the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students. It is the second largest stadium in the world by seating capacity,after Narendra Modi Stadium. The stadium can officially hold up to a maximum of 114,000 spectators. [3]
The stadium is currently used for football matches,a few athletics events,and most often for the mass games of the Arirang Festival.
The stadium's scalloped roof features 16 arches arranged in a ring,and resembles a magnolia blossom. It hosts events on a main pitch covering 22,500 m2 (242,000 sq ft). Its total floor space is over 207,000 m2 (2,230,000 sq ft) across eight stories,and the lobes of its roof peak at more than 60 m (200 ft) above the ground.[ citation needed ] The stadium was originally built with an official capacity of 150,000. After a 2014 remodel which included the replacement of some bench seating with individual seats,observers estimated a new capacity of approximately 114,000. [4] [5] It was later confirmed in November 2022 that the stadium is still expandable up to 150,000. [3]
After the 1988 Summer Olympics had been awarded to Seoul,North Korea intensified its efforts to present itself as the legitimate Korean state. As part of these efforts,it successfully bid to organize the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang in 1989. Massive construction projects were initiated in preparation for the festival,one of which was the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium. At the time of completion,it was the largest stadium ever built in Asia. [6] [7]
While the stadium is used for sporting events,it is more frequently the site of massive performances and shows celebrating President Kim Il Sung and the North Korean nation. In June–July 2002,it was the site of the giant Arirang Festival gymnastic and artistic performance. The extravaganza involved over 100,000 participants—double the number of spectators, [8] and was open to foreigners. These performances are now an annual feature in Pyongyang,usually in August and September. The event was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records in 2007 as the largest gymnastics display ever,with 100,090 participants. [9]
Collision in Korea,the largest professional wrestling pay-per-view event ever,was held at Rungrado Stadium on 28–29 April 1995. Attendance was 150,000 and 190,000,respectively,according to local authorities. [10]
After a two-year renovation project,the stadium reopened in 2015. In July 2017,the Rungrado Stadium played host to six group stage matches as part of 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification. [11]
In the September 2018 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang,President Moon Jae-in of South Korea gave a speech with Chairman Kim Jong Un to 150,000 North Korean spectators. The speech has themes of unification,peace,and cooperation. [12]
In July 2019,Kim Jong Un hosted Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping to a special Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic performance called "Invincible Socialism",on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of China–North Korea relations.
In 31 December 2022,a concert was held on the grounds of the stadium,commemorating the New Year's Eve,which was presided over by Kim Jong Un and along with other high-profile Workers' Party of Korea officials.
Pyongyang is the capital and largest city of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about 109 km (68 mi) upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,288. Pyongyang is a directly administered city with a status equal to that of the North Korean provinces.
Juche, officially the Juche idea, is the state ideology of North Korea and the official ideology of the Workers' Party of Korea. North Korean sources attribute its conceptualization to Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and first leader. Juche was originally regarded as a variant of Marxism–Leninism until Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Sung's son and successor, declared it a distinct ideology in the 1970s. Kim Jong Il further developed Juche in the 1980s and 1990s by making ideological breaks from Marxism–Leninism and increasing the importance of his father's ideas.
Kim Il Sung Stadium (Korean: 김일성경기장) is a multi-purpose stadium located in Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea. The stadium is used primarily for association football matches.
The Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance Arirang, also known as the Arirang Mass Games, or the Arirang Festival is a mass gymnastics and artistic festival held in the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. The games usually take place in August or September. The Arirang Mass Games were held annually between 2002 and 2013, with the exception of 2006. After a five-year hiatus, Mass Games returned for a performance entitled 'The Glorious Country' in 2018.
Mass games or mass gymnastics are a form of performing arts or gymnastics in which large numbers of performers take part in a highly regimented performance that emphasizes group dynamics rather than individual prowess.
Historically, North Korea's participation in international sporting events has been hindered by the relations with South Korea. Until the 1990s, North Korea used to host up to 14 international events every year, albeit in small scale. Since the early 1990s, the amount was reduced to just one, the Paektusan Prize International Figure Skating Festival. More recently, since the 2000s, North Korea both participates in and hosts more international competitions.
Inter-Korean summits are meetings between the leaders of North and South Korea. To date, there have been five such meetings so far, three of them being in Pyongyang, with another two in Panmunjom. The importance of these summits lies in the lack of formal communication between North and South Korea, which makes discussing political and economic issues difficult. The summits' agendas have included topics such as the ending of the 1950-53 war, the massive deployment of troops at the DMZ, the development of nuclear weapons by North Korea, and human rights issues.
Rungra Island is an island in Pyongyang, North Korea, located in the middle of the Taedong River. Its total area is 1.3 square kilometres (0.50 sq mi). The Chongryu Bridge on the north side and the Rungra Bridge on the south side connect the island to the rest of Pyongyang. Some of the Eight Views of Pyongyang can be seen from the island.
The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) was held from 1–8 July 1989 in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, and was organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth. It was the largest international event staged in North Korea up until then.
The Moranbong Band, also known as the Moran Hill Orchestra, is a North Korean girl group. Performing interpretive styles of pop, rock, and fusion, they are the first all-female band from the DPRK, and made their world debut on 6 July 2012. Their varied musical style has been described as symphonic because it is "putting together different kinds of sounds, and ending in a harmonious, pleasing result."
Events from the year 1989 in North Korea.
The Day of the Sun is an annual public holiday in North Korea on 15 April, the birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, founder and Eternal President of North Korea. It is the most important national holiday in the country, and is considered to be the North Korean equivalent of Christmas. Kim's birthday, which had been an official holiday since 1968, was renamed Day of the Sun in 1997, three years after his death. The name takes its significance from his name: Il-sung.
The Kim Il Sung Prize (Korean: 김일성상) is an award given by the Government of North Korea to persons in various fields who demonstrate exemplary service to the values of Juche idea. Past winners include the Korean composer Kim Won-gyun, judoka Kye Sun-hui, and the Arirang Festival.
The April 2018 inter-Korean summit took place on 27 April 2018 on the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area, between Moon Jae-in, President of South Korea, and Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and Supreme Leader of North Korea. The summit was the third inter-Korean summit - the first in eleven years. It was also the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953 that a North Korean leader entered the South's territory; President Moon also briefly crossed into the North's territory.
The Propaganda and Agitation Department, officially translated as the Publicity and Information Department, is a department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) tasked with coordinating the creation and dissemination of propaganda in North Korea. It is the highest propaganda organization in the country.
The Kim–Xi meetings were a series of summits between North Korea and China during 2018 and 2019. North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un secretly met with Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping on March 25–28, 2018. Xi made a classified invitation to Kim to visit China, after which Kim visited Beijing and used his bullet proof train to travel to the three-day meeting. It is his first known out-of-country diplomatic trip since taking power. Kim and Xi had a second surprise meeting on May 7–8, 2018 in the city of Dalian. Kim and Xi had a third surprise meeting on June 19–20, 2018. They had a fourth surprise meeting on January 7–10, 2019 in Beijing, followed by a fifth official DPRK and China summit June 20–21, 2019 in the Forbidden City, Pyongyang.
Spring Is Coming was a concert that occurred in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 1 and 3, 2018. It included numerous South Korean performers, and was described as an important event in the 2018 thaw in the North Korea–South Korea relations.
The September 2018 inter-Korean summit was the third and final inter-Korean summit in the 2018-19 Korean peace process.
The 2018–19 Korean peace process was initiated to resolve the long-running Korean conflict and denuclearize Korea. International concerns about North Korea's nuclear weapons came to a head in 2017, when they posed a direct threat to the United States. At the same time, Moon Jae-in was elected president of South Korea with the promise of returning to the Sunshine Policy, favoring good relations with North Korea. A series of summits were held between North Korea's Kim Jong Un, South Korea's Moon, and Donald Trump of the United States. Trump became the first sitting US President to meet a North Korean leader and to enter North Korean territory. Kim became the first North Korean leader to enter South Korean territory. Moon became the first South Korean President to give a speech in North Korea. In parallel to this, a number of cultural exchanges began. Tensions were lowered on both sides of the DMZ.
The State Merited Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of the Korean People's Army (Korean: 조선인민군공훈국가합창단) is the principal musical performing unit of the Korean People's Army (KPA), based in the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang. As the second oldest military chorus and instrumental ensemble, it serves as one of the outstanding premier musical ensembles within the whole KPA proper and has been hailed as a model institution. It has been in existence since February 1947.