PYONGYANG, April 7 (Itar-Tass) — The North Korean capital unveiled a film festival, timed to coincide with the 100th birth date of Kim Il-Sung to be marked on April 15 as “Day of Sun”.
The festival programme in Pyongyang includes documentaries “President Kim Il-Sung and leader Kim Jong-Il were marching jointly on the road of people’s well-being”, “Under the leadership of the great and brilliant commander”, feature films “Star of Korea”, “Sun of the nation”, “My country”, “Mt. Pektusan” (Eds: a mountain, sacred for Koreans, where, according to the official version, Kim Jong-Il was born), “Photograph” and others.
The local press marks on Saturday that all of them “truthfully depict immortal revolutionary feats by Kim Il-Sung as well as lofty moral qualities and indomitable ideological foundations of Korean people”. The 10-day festival will be held at all cinema theatres and Houses of Culture of Pyongyang and other cities in the country.
North Korea put out a series of commemorative postage stamps, devoted to “the first and eternal president” of North Korea. Kim Il-Sung is depicted on some postage stamps together with his wife who is regarded a heroine of anti-Japanese struggle.
During events, timed to coincide with Kim’s 100th birth date, Pyongyang launched competitions in tae kwan do, an ancient Korean wrestling sport. This type of sport experiences a veritable boom in North Korea over the past few years. A considerable part of population in the country – men, women and children – now practice tae kwan do.
The traditional festival “April Spring” with the participation of some 800 actors from various countries, including Russia, China, Italy and France, will start here on April 11.
On April 12, the opening ceremony of the World Congress of sympathizers of the juche idea, to which great importance is attached here, will take place in the North Korean capital. The forum agenda includes “theoretical and practical questions of struggle against imperialism, for peace and security”. “Creation of a new peaceful and prospering society, based on the juche idea", will be the key topic of the forum.
Juche (translated as “self-made master”) is the North Korean state ideology. It was elaborated by President Kim Il-Sung who died in 1994.
However, the blast-off of a satellite, scheduled for April 12-16, will be the key event of the coming festivities. The UN, Russia, the US, South Korea and Japan called on North Korea to give up the idea of launching a satellite.
UN Security Council resolution 1874, adopted in June 2009, demands that Pyongyang should not make any new nuclear tests or launchings with the use of ballistic missile technologies. However, North Korea insists on a peaceful edge of the coming lift-off and absence of any link with the above resolution.
Reporters from Russian, Chinese, American and Japanese TV companies will cover festivities of the occasion of “Day of Sun”.