Seoul, June 4: Tens of thousands of performers in Pyongyang took part in the first of North Korea’s spectacular “Mass Games” propaganda displays for 2019, but the show left leader Kim Jong Un unimpressed.
The “Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance” features enormous numbers of people — mostly students and schoolchildren — in precision synchronised moves. Behind them, thousands of children turn the coloured pages of books in sequence to create an ever-changing backdrop of giant images rippling across one side of the stadium.
But Kim was underwhelmed by the production, titled “The Land of the People”. After the show “he called creators of the performance and seriously criticised them for their wrong spirit of creation and irresponsible work attitude,” the North’s official KCNA news agency reported Tuesday.
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, KCNA 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 programme. 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 Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper last week reported that he had been sent to a labour camp after the no-deal in Hanoi. KCNA made no mention of Kim Hyok Chol, North Korea’s special envoy to the United States who the Chosun Ilbo said had been executed by firing squad for “betraying the supreme leader” after he was “won over to the US” during pre-summit negotiations.
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. But Kim’s verdict on the show may see it reworked.
