Another showery day greeted us as we made our way to the Mansudae Grand Monument on Friday morning. Mansudae is the massive statue of Kim Il Sung that is an obligatory tourist stop in Pyongyang. Upon arrival the presence of military personnel was conspicuous, but we were explicitly told not to photograph them. I'm not 100% sure what they were all doing there, but it seemed like many worked there performing odd maintenance jobs - throwing out old flowers, sweeping footpaths, etc.
Flowers were laid and the group lined up to bow in front of the statue. After a short spiel from Miss Jong we took the obligatory touristy photos, including a group shot. However photography was only permitted as long as the statue of Kim Il Sung was not partially depicted. All photos must have the entire statue included!
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| Our group at the Mansudae Grand Monument (with the entire statue within shot). |
Flanking the main statue were two enormous revolutionary monuments. The northern version had the slogan "Let's kick out the American imperialists and reunify the country!" with a large group of civilians and soldiers cast in bronze looking defiantly ahead (into battle?). Hannah pointed out to us that you could see one of the soldiers trampling on an United States army helmet and flag.
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| "Let's kick out the American imperialists and reunify our country!" |
Our next stop was the Museum Of Korean Revolution, located within the Mansudae complex. Photography was prohibited within this museum and the content sent many of the tour members to sleep. But my boredom was rudely interrupted midway through by the local guide referring to Americans in the museum exhibits as "American bastards". Initially I thought I had misheard this so I started paying close attention and indeed the museum guide was using those words in Korean anytime she mentioned United States nationals - and Miss Jong was cleaning up the language in her translation. I took great delight in revealing this nugget to the tour group, especially our Yankee mates.
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