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Historic stop for Olympic torch
28/04/2008 18:24 - (SA)
Pyongyang - North Korea mobilised tens of thousands of citizens on Monday to celebrate a disruption-free leg of the Beijing Olympics' torch relay in the capital Pyongyang, on the flame's first ever visit to the authoritarian nation.
With men in their best suits and women wearing bright, pastel traditional high-waisted dresses, North Koreans gave the torch the type of welcome reserved for the country's main holidays or visiting state leaders, waving flags and paper flowers along the streets of Pyongyang.
Unlike other places on the torch's worldwide journey, which has been shadowed by protests against China's government, all went without a hitch in North Korea, one of the world's most restrictive nations. Only the most loyal communist elite are allowed to live in Pyongyang, a showpiece city filled with monuments to the hardline regime.
China is North Korea's main ally and a key provider of aid, and the torch relay was treated as a means to herald their ties. North Korea has condemned the torch relay disruptions elsewhere and supported Beijing in its crackdown against violent protests in Tibet.
Leader Kim Jong Il was not seen at the event, but he was "paying great interest to the success of the Olympic torch relay," Pak Hak Son, chairperson of the North's Olympic committee, said at the relay start, according to a report from Pyongyang by Japan's Kyodo News agency.
"We express our basic position that while some impure forces have opposed China's hosting of the event and have been disruptive, we believe that constitutes a challenge to the Olympic idea," Pak said.
Peaceful crowd
The torch began its run from beneath the giant red stained-glass flame that tops the 170-meter-tall obelisk of the Juche Tower, which commemorates the national ideology of "self-reliance" created by the country's late founding President Kim Il Sung, father of Kim Jong Il.
An attentive and peaceful crowd of thousands watched the start of the relay, some waving Chinese and Olympic flags, footage from broadcaster APTN showed. The ceremony was presided over by the head of the country's rubber-stamp Parliament who often acts as a ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong Nam.
Kim passed the flame to Pak Du Ik, a former soccer star who played on North Korea's 1966 World Cup soccer team that made a historic trip to the quarterfinals.
As the 20km relay wound through Pyongyang, thousands more cheering people lined city streets waving pink paper flowers and small flags with the Beijing Olympics logo and chanting "Welcome! Welcome!"
Middle-aged women in traditional Korean dresses danced and beat drums in a joyful mood in a square, while young girls held red balloons and bouquets of flowers, according to APTN footage.
Security was far lighter than seen in most other cities visited by the torch, although the flame was followed by several people in training suits along with some vehicles and motorcycles.
Like brothers
The relay ended after about five hours at Kim Il Sung Stadium, where female marathoner Chong Song Ok used the torch to light an Olympic cauldron, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported from Pyongyang.
The stadium was filled with tens of thousands of people, some holding banners reading, "Cheer for Beijing, Cheer for Pyongyang, Cheer for the Olympic Games," Xinhua said.
China and North Korea "are like brothers," said Li Binghua, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, according to Kyodo. "We are very moved that tens of thousands turned out for the relay."
The UN children's agency Unicef had been asked to participate in the North Korean leg of the relay but withdrew in March, saying it wasn't sure the event would help its mission of raising awareness of conditions for children.
North Korea's children are often the most at risk of starvation in the regular food shortages that plague the country. The problem is expected to be more severe this year due to poor harvests caused by massive floods last summer that wiped out large swaths of the country's most productive farmland.
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