Event / North Korea

Arirang Festival

12:55 / 30.04.2002
Matt Pyke
Sheffield

100,000 North Korean residents trained for a year to perform at the Arirang Festival (The Mass Games). The state's immense, immaculately choreographed display of culture, one of the rare events to which foreigners are invited. The huge backdrops are made from human pixels, 1000's of performers holding sequences of coloured placards. Timed to coincide with South Korea's Olympic Ceremonies, this was communist precision at its best.

Strangest Show On Earth

Official Government TV Advertisement. Yeah!

Comments / 89 Comments / Add Comment

Can they do animated GIFs as well?

Posted by Dennis
07:40 / 10/04/2007

there actually can...i ve seen a video where they have like 5 cards that they put up one after another that shows some action.

Posted by mothers milk
10:10 / 10/04/2007

i feel sad for north koreans. communism is horrible for those who have experienced it first hand.

Posted by reds
11:25 / 10/04/2007

It's such a shame that the "glorious leader" lives in utter luxury (he's the single largest customer of Courvosier in the world) while his people die in mass famine and live in utter oppression. Even a single utterance against the state or dear leader results in being sent to a concentration camp, along with your *entire* extended family (including by marriage) for the next four generations. 25% to 30% of the population in these camps die each year. In fact, the guards who murder individuals are rewarded with the opportunity to study in a university, a very rare gift. Think I'm mistaken about all this? Search the BBC and the web -- they have the videotaped testimony from the rare few individuals (almost all soldiers and guards) who have made it out of the state alive.

Posted by Seeker
18:42 / 10/04/2007

Anyone know who wrote the music used in the tv commercial? What western artist would license their music to the North Korean government? Or did they use it without permission?

Posted by tim
00:10 / 11/04/2007

The song is by Faithless and called "I want more". I was dubious that they would allow it to be used, but it seems to be their official video for the song!

See:
http://www.faithless.co.uk
or
http://www.faithless.co.uk/media/video/i_want_more_1.html

Posted by Dave Parsons
02:59 / 11/04/2007

"People as pixels" - think about that the net time you throw away your screen that have 16 million colours.

Samuel, UK

Posted by Samuel
14:21 / 11/04/2007

A book titled "Inside North Korea" came out recently and it includes more images from the Arirang Festival. You can check it out at:

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=6368&store=books

Posted by Monica
16:36 / 13/04/2007

How do you know that the Faithless video is the offical TV Ad for the festival?

The video is definitely the one Faithless used for the song. It was on heavy rotation on MTV Europe a year ago or so. If it was used by NK government I wouldn't be suprised if it was used without Faithless' consent or even prior knowledge.

Posted by Johan
01:46 / 14/04/2007

Of course that song wasn't "the official TV ad". Why would the government choose such a crappy song? Whoever believes that knows nothing of North Korea. They are very patriotic and it's as likely for their government to chose western song as if USA (also very patriotic, for those of you who are morons) would chose a North Korean song for THEIR next propaganda film.

Posted by RNM
18:15 / 24/04/2007

A MUST SEE documentary inside the lives of two North Korean schoolgirls participating in one of the many Mass Games.

A State of Mind
http://www.astateofmind.co.uk/

Posted by Heidi
12:56 / 18/05/2007

To see the other bipolar side of North Korea, the side that they don't want you to know about, check out:

Children of the Secret State
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1875007335054132657

Posted by Heidi
13:05 / 18/05/2007

The expression dead pixel gets a new meaning. You cant handle the refreshrate? You are dead...next please

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01:41 / 08/02/2008

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16:56 / 06/03/2009