North Korean Economy Watch

Korea Times
Ryu Jin
6/7/2007

More than 1.5 million tourists have so far visited Mt. Geumgang in North Korea since the tour was launched about a decade ago, Hyundai Asan said Thursday.

Since the launch in November 1998, the accumulated number of tourists to Mt. Geumgang reached 500,000 in November 2002, 1 million in June 2005 and then 1.5 million in June this year, according to the South Korean operator of the inter-Korean tourism project.

Company officials hailed the latest achievement, which came just after the start of a new tour program to inner Mt. Geumgang, better known as “Naegeumgang’’ in Korean, early this month.

“We will hold a weekend concert this Saturday at the multi-purpose cultural center in the resort complex of Onjeong-ri,’’ a Hyndai Asan spokesman said. “Famous pop singers and bands, including Nam Jin, and rock band No Brain will be there.’’

As part of efforts to promote the Mt. Geumgang tour program, Hyundai Asan has held various cultural events in recent months including concerts and previews of films.

Mt. Geumgang, which has long held both aesthetic and spiritual allure for Koreans, can be divided into three parts: Naegeumgang (inner, western part), Oegeumgang (outer, eastern part) and Haegeumgang (seashore part).

Since the first tour to Oegeumgang in 1998, an increasing number of visitors have made the trip to the resort area. Most were South Koreans; fewer than 8,000 visitors came from 48 other countries.

But the inter-Korean tourism business has often been affected by the security situation on the Korean Peninsula. For example, it ran into difficulties when North Korea conducted a nuclear test in October last year.

Amid the heightened tension, the number of tourists plummeted to some 240,000 last year, putting a damper on Hyundai Asan’s target of securing more than 400,000 visitors annually.

On June 1, the company started a new tour program, which allows visitors to taste the elegance of the inner part of the 12,000-peak auspicious mountain. Hyundai Asan CEO Yoon Man-joon expressed his ambition during a pilot tour late last month where some 150 dignitaries and media took part.

“We set the target at 400,000 again this year. About 15 to 20 percent of the tourists are expected to visit Naegeumgang this year,’’ Yoon said. “I hope the launch of the Naegeumgang tour will give us an opportunity for a second leap toward successful Mt. Geumgang tour business.’’

Hyundai Asan officials said about 100,000 people have made the trip to the mountain by the end of May. They expect that the figure could reach the target as the high-demand season — from June to October — is approaching.

Each group for the two-night, three-day Naegeumgang tour will be made up of up to 150 visitors and the departure days are every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

On the first day, the visitors would check in at the hotel and enjoy the North Korean acrobatics show and dine on unique North Korean food for supper. On the second day, they would explore the beauty of Naegeumgang, followed by a brief trip to Oegeumgang on the last day.

Yoon said the company would also try to revamp tour programs to draw more younger visitors as part of its new marketing strategy for the existing tour to the outer side of the mountain, Oegeumgang.

“We will continue to host various cultural events, including concerts and cinema previews, to meet expectations of customers in various age groups,’’ said a company spokesman. “These efforts will also help the company advance to two million visitors.’’

Korea Herald
Kim Yoon-mi
5/30/2007

Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of travel to Mount Geumgang in North Korea, is considering expanding its new program that would allow South Koreans to tour the inner side of the mountain, its CEO Yoon Man-joon said yesterday.

Hyundai Asan on Sunday and Monday ran two pilot tours to inner Mount Geumgang, which has been closed by North Korea despite the South Korean company’s eight-year-long request to open it to South Korean visitors.

The new tour course will be open to the general public from June 1.

“For now, the new course is open three times a week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. But depending on the tourists’ response, we could increase the visiting days. And this has already been agreed to with North Korean officials,” Yoon said during a press meeting at Pyohun Temple at inner Mount Geumgang on Monday.

Hyundai Asan’s tourism business met difficulties when North Korea conducted a nuclear test in October last year. With tension heightened on the Korean Peninsula, the number of tourists visiting Mount Geumgang plummeted, ruining Hyundai Asan’s target of securing 400,000 visitors a year. The number reached only 240,000 last year.

“We set the target at 400,000 again this year. About 15 to 20 percent of the tourists are expected to visit inner Geumgang this year. I hope by launching the inner Mount Geumgang tour, it give us a second leap toward successful Mount Geumgang tour business,” Yoon said.

The new tour includes a bus ride through North Korean villages for an hour and a half.

During the bus ride, North Korea people’s livelihoods, commercial buildings and schools will be visible to South Korean tourists.

“It must have been a big decision for North Korea to open up their ‘inner bedroom’ because you would do so to only those who are really close to you,” he said.

Regarding new marketing strategy for the existing tour to the outer side of Mount Geumgang, Yoon said the company will revamp tour programs to attract younger visitors.

Also, Hyundai Asan will add two tour sites called Munpil Peak and Beobgi Rock to the outer Mount Geumgang tour course as early as in June, he said.

The inner Mount Geumgang tour, once opened in June, will be operated from April to November with a price tag of 420,000 won ($450) for a three-day tour per person. The outer Geumgang tour currently costs 390,000 won per person.

“Just as inner and outer parts of Mount Geumgang meet to become one, I hope one day the two Koreas can become one,” said Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, who also participated in the pilot tour on Monday.

CNN (Hat tip to D”S”B)
Adam Levine
5/22/2007

Hiking on North Korea’s Mount Kumgang gives you the uneasy feeling that despite the majesty of the natural scenery, even nature cannot escape politics in one of the most closed-off countries in the world.

The four-hour walk to Kuryong Falls is the centerpiece of the Mount Kumgang resort in southeastern North Korea. The trail winds along a river with glistening pools of water and picturesque scenery all around.

But you never escape the country’s dictatorship — there is the propaganda carved into the mountainside and rocks by the North Koreans, and the Chinese before them. There are also the North Korean employees working as vendors and rescue workers on the trail. They are always in pairs, and always seem to be watching you.

Kumgang is a popular tourist destination for South Koreans, for whom the mountain holds spiritual allure, and it is one of the few places in North Korea that Americans can travel relatively easily.

Hyundai Asan, an offshoot of the Korean car company, built the resort. It paid the North Korean government US$1 billion for 50 years of exclusive rights to the region and other business interests in North Korea. It spent an additional US$400 million to build the five-hotel resort, which opened in 1998.

More than 1.5 million visitors have made the trip to Kumgang. Most visitors are South Koreans; less than 8,000 visitors are from 48 other countries. Hyundai Asan spokesman Dan Byun says a majority of the 8,000 are South Korean ex-patriots.

Despite the western style hotel accommodations, American money changing hands and duty free shop selling Johnny Walker and Marlboro cigarettes, you don’t forget that you are in North Korea.

Just getting there involves busing through the demilitarized zone, where we are constantly told “no pictures, no pictures” by our guide and informed that aside from the road we are on, the entire area is filled with land mines.

After going through North Korean immigration we are herded back on a bus and reminded again that we cannot take pictures until we get inside the resort.

The 4.5-mile trip moves through southern North Korea, which the guide says is all a military base. Soldiers appear ominously standing at attention along the road. Each carries a red flag, which, we are told, will be raised if any soldier sees one of us taking a picture. Tanks and what appear to be anti-aircraft weapons are hidden in bunkers in the hills overlooking the roads.

The actual resort area looks no different than any typical tourist destination with a welcome center, hotels, bus parking and retail stores. North Korean folk songs blare from overhead speakers in the parking lot. But surrounding it all is a fence to separate tourists from the North Korean village of On Jung Li.

A two-night, three-day tour can cost as much as US$490. There are five hotels to choose from including a beach-side hotel and floating hotel and one that used to be the vacation home of Kim Il Sung’s wife.

There are 11 restaurants, including a branch of a North Korean noodle restaurant that is an exact replica of its counterpart in Pyongyang. An 18-hole golf course is opening in the fall and there is a Korean acrobatics show that performs each night at the theater.

The government has gone to extremes to accommodate the resort, even tearing down a village and moving it and its inhabitants to make way for the welcome center and shop.

The company defends its $1 billion payment to the North Korean government as economic revitalization. Hyundai Asan built a railway and border station to allow trains to travel from Seoul, South Korea, into North Korea. After refusing to let the trains through for a long time, the North Korean government finally allowed the first train to cross the border last week.

Hyundai is also building a reunification center to allow families from both sides of the border to hold reunions when allowed.

Some North Koreans work at the resort as waiters, vendors, rescue teams and maintenance. Most wear a pin of their president on their lapel.

Most refused to be photographed, cryptically saying “no pictures while I am working.” All but a few will refuse to talk to you. The ones that did talk to us offer some glimpse into their thinking.

One rescue worker told us that the only reason President Bush has not invaded North Korea is because Bush is afraid of Kim Jung Il. A vendor told us that she likes Americans, but hates the American government.

The resort is surrounded by a fence, through which you can see villagers planting in the fields and walking down the roads. They are forbidden to come to the resort or talk to the tourists. Not that they appear to be trying.

Ashley Moore, from Oklahoma, remembers North Koreans ducking behind trees and plants.

“We weren’t allowed to speak to any of them,” Moore said.

Moore, and her boyfriend Zac Gambill took a trip to Mount Kumgang when they lived in South Korea last year.

She and Gambill went from being a bit frightened to be in North Korea to surprise about the unabashed consumerism at the resort.

“Seeing the commercialism at the resort was a real shock,” Moore said. But she never felt totally at ease.

“We got a sense of the North Korean government’s determination to convey a favorable image to the outside world and a small sense of what it feels like to be constantly under surveillance,” Moore observed.

Office of Foreign Asset Control
(hat tip to Mr. Lukacs, with whom I visited Turkmenistan with Koryo Tours)

[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 31, Volume 2]
[Revised as of July 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 31CFR500.563]

[Page 543]
 
                  TITLE 31–MONEY AND FINANCE: TREASURY
 
 CHAPTER V–OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
 
PART 500–FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL REGULATIONS–Table of Contents
 
 Subpart E–Licenses, Authorizations and Statements of Licensing Policy
 
Sec. 500.563  Transactions incident to travel to and within North Korea.

    (a) All transactions of persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction, including travel service providers, ordinarily incident to travel to, from, and within North Korea and to maintenance within North Korea are authorized. This authorization extends to transactions with North Korean carriers and those involving group tours, payment of living expenses, the acquisition of goods in North Korea for personal use, and normal banking transactions involving currency drafts, charge, debit or credit cards, traveler’s checks, or other financial instruments negotiated incident to personal travel.
    (b) The purchase of merchandise in North Korea by persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and importation as accompanied baggage, is limited to goods with a foreign market value not to exceed $100 per person for personal use only. Such merchandise may not be resold. This authorization may be used only once in every six consecutive months. As provided in Sec. 500.206 of this part, information and informational materials are exempt from this restriction.
    (c) This section does not authorize any debit to a blocked account.

[60 FR 8935, Feb. 16, 1995]

Daily NK
Kwon Jeong Hyun
5/1/2007

Drug dealings have been occurring frequently amongst North Korea’s wealthy class which has led to an increase in people “taking medicine” an inside source recently informed.

Further, an underground casino for foreigners at Yangkag Hotel, Pyongyang, is known to have been openly circulating drugs. Yangkag Hotel is an elite hotel and was built in 1995 in co-partnership with France. Currently, the hotel operates a casino used by foreigners.

The source informed on the 30th, “Drug dealers directly approach the wealthy class who live around the borders of North Korea-China” and revealed, “People fall for the dealer’s trap and hence the number of addicted drug sellers and wealthy class is increasing.”

A few North Korean tradesmen even testified that a large number of the rich living in the border regions of North Korea, have in fact dealt with drugs in one form or another. Apparantly, about 3 out of 10 rich persons in North Korea have had some experiences with drugs and most of the long-distance drivers in North Korea take drugs.

One North Korean tradesman ‘H’ revealed, “Drug dealers con North Koreans with money by saying that the ‘medicine’ clears the head and acts as an aphrodisiac by giving you strength. Then they let the buyers taste-test the drug for free.” H said, “After a few times, the majority of these people become addicted and the dealer sets up a relationship to sell the drug for a long time.”

‘J’ who lives around the border regions expressed the seriousness of the drug issue by telling his own story. Through North Korea-China trade, J’s brother-in-law had accumulated a lot of wealth. One morning without any warning, he suddenly died in which J had thought was a hart attack. However, he later found out from his sister that drugs had been the cause.

For the past 2 years, J’s brother-in-law had been earning money and also spending it on drugs. He tried to quit on numerous occasions but was unable to escape from the persistent temptation by the drug dealer. As time passed, the symptoms of an addict surfaced which ultimately led to a drug overdose and death.

J said, “Never in my dreams could I have imagined that a good person like my brother-in-law would become a drug addict. Though authorities are enforcing regulations and punishment on the misuse of drugs, the problem is that there are no specific penalties or laws. If this keeps going, things could get worse.”

The source said, “North Korean authorities have made numerous decrees on various occasions stating that they will toughen punishment. But there are no specific rules or law and so there is no control over the offenders.” The source added, “The truth is, it will be difficult to penalize everyone according to the decrees set as many people throughout the regions of North Korea are now using drugs including the rich living in the cities.”

On the other hand, the district of Hamheung is receiving much focus as it is known to be the base for drug manufacture. Drugs sold on the black-market in Pyongyang, Chongjin and Shinuiju are considered of high quality and receive utmost trust if the drugs have been made in Hamheung.

Hamheung’s history dates back to when the chemical industry was first booming in North Korea. As a result, North Korea authorities began to produce medicinal drugs to attract more foreign currency. When the economic situation worsened, workers and the elite were known to have stashed drugs secretly in order to make money.

In addition to this, as lifestyles became more difficult, there were rumors suggesting that chemical analysts brought some raw materials of Philopon from China to secretly make drugs within the labs.

“It’s not only Hamheung. Drugs are easily available even in Pyongyang” the source said and, “Drugs are openly traded at the underground foreigners casino in Yangkag Hotel (for Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese tourists).”

The source continued, “The elite in Pyongyang often take drugs and this hotel is known for its stash of drugs” and added, “The Safety Agency and the Protection Agency must take action. Otherwise, the situation is only going to get worse.”

Korea Times
Kim Yon-se
4/30/2007

Hyundai Group is gearing up to activate its inter-Korean businesses as negative factors, such as North Korea’s nuclear test last October, have started to settle down.

As early as this year, Hyundai Asan, the group’s tourism unit, plans to operate cable cars on Mount Kumgang to attract more South Korean tourists. The company has been in talks with North Korea to run cable cars on part of the mountain.

“It usually takes about one year or more to complete the construction of a cable car system. We launched the construction last year,” a company official said, suggesting that tourists could enjoy the service in 2007 or early 2008.

He said cable cars will run between the mountain’s top and the Sejonbong ridge, one of Mount Kumgang’s peaks. As the peak is located near the East Sea, tourists will enjoy scenic views of the mountain and sea simultaneously.

Hyundai Asan has set the goal of attracting 400,000 tourists, including South Koreans and foreigners, to Mount Kumgang this year, compared with 234,446 last year.

Its rosy outlook comes largely from the six-party agreement to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programs in February. Hyundai Asan officials say the event will help normalize inter-Korean businesses.

“The landmark accord will enable our inter-Korean projects, including Mount Kumgang tours and the Kaesong Industrial Complex, to get revitalized,” the official said.

Along with the scheduled opening of tours to inner Mount Kumgang from May 27, Hyundai Asan has decided to hire more than 10 fresh employees.

As the number of tourists fell to fewer than 250,000 in 2006 from 301,822 in 2005 and 272,820 in 2004, the company had to conduct layoffs and cut monthly payments to some employees amid deteriorating profitability last year.

Now the company plans to restore the salary level and pay delayed bonuses in a bid to encourage workers.

The tour project accounts for about 70 percent of Hyundai Asan’s total sales. It has set a sales target of 300 billion won for 2007.

Hyundai is also poised to push ahead with a plan to begin tours to Kaesong, a North Korean historical city near the border that is home to the South Korean-invested industrial complex. It plans to hold working-level meetings with the North in order to hasten the start of the tours.

Star Bulletin
Jim Borg
4/23/2007

The Mount Kumgang project has become a place of spiritual if not political reconnection

Amid ongoing international tensions, North Korea has embraced Western-style tourism at its most famous natural attraction, Mount Kumgang.

Thousands of Korean and foreign tourists flock each month to a modern resort under development by South Korea’s Hyundai Asan Corp., which paid $1 billion for exclusive rights to the business.

After $400 million in additional expenditures since 1998, Hyundai Asan has created not only a tourism hub, but the epicenter for reunification efforts on the peninsula.

“Through the Kumgang tourism business, the reconciliation process has begun between the North and the South,” says Young-Hyun Kim, the company’s on-site general managing director.

Star-Bulletin reporter Jim Borg visited the stunning locale last week as part of a journalism exchange sponsored by the East-West Center and the Korea Press Foundation.

MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea »

Mist rose from the high mountain pool under the thundering waters of Kuryong Falls, adding to the chilly dampness of the day.

Four hours after an unsmiling North Korean soldier scrutinized our passports and waved us on, we stood at the top of a trail traveled each month by thousands of tourists from both sides of the border, all in search of a spiritual reconnection with their ancestral land.

On a divided peninsula technically still at war, Mount Kumgang has become part of a bold experiment in rapprochement. As their political leaders stagger toward the stated goal of reunification, North and South Korea have carved a modern resort out of this imposing landscape along the Sea of Japan.

Despite international tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program and missile launches last July, South Korea’s Hyundai Asan Corp. is pressing ahead with plans to develop this 922-square-mile expanse a short drive north of the Demilitarized Zone.

Already in place are three multistory hotels, a beach lodge for families, 34 single-family cabins, camping facilities, four North Korean restaurants, six South Korean restaurants, duty-free shops, convenience stores, a hot-spring spa, shows featuring acrobats and folk music, and stone-paved trails punctuated by snack tables. A swimming beach adjoins the floating Hotel Haekumgang in nearby Kosung Bay.

A railway links the two countries here. North Korea, for obscure reasons, has yet to green-light the trains, and border stations remain eerily empty, but Hyundai Asan’s Ha-Jung “Dan” Byun expresses confidence that that hurdle will be cleared soon.

“Everything is connected,” he says. “Everything is ready. What we are waiting for is the final confirmation between the two governments.”

Byun, general manager for planning and foreign investor relations, greeted U.S. reporters visiting Mount Kumgang last week as part of a program sponsored by the East-West Center. This is the first time that the Korea-United States Journalism Exchange, now in its third year, has sent reporters into North Korea.

One of the lessons that emerged is that business interests seem to be succeeding where diplomacy has often failed.

Hyundai Asan, an enterprise separate from the automotive and shipbuilding giants, paid $1 billion to North Korea for exclusive business rights at Mount Kumgang and, farther west, the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where South Korean technology meets cheap North Korean labor.

Scandal clouded the early years of the association, when corruption and embezzlement charges presumably prompted the company’s chairman, Chung Mong-hun, to commit suicide in 2003 by leaping from his 12th-floor office in Seoul. Asked whether Hyundai Asan’s largesse could be viewed as helping to finance North Korea’s weapons programs, Byun said the firm believes the lump sum payments in 1999-2000 were used for economic revitalization.

But even elsewhere along the Demilitarized Zone, a remnant of the 1950-53 Korean War, conflict has bred commerce, drawing tourists to souvenir shops and a carnival park called Peace Land. Tourists and South Korean schoolchildren are taken by tram into a tunnel dug under the DMZ by the North Koreans and discovered in 1978.

Peace Land is a short drive from Seoul, up a highway where billboard-type advertising masks barricades rigged with explosives to stop invading tanks.

South Koreans seem at ease with this dichotomy, taking North Korean anti-U.S. rhetoric and military posturing in stride in an atmosphere of care-free prosperity.

THE BEDROCK for North Korea’s burgeoning tourism is a collection of crags that seem to reach skyward like fingers pressed in prayer. Mile-high Birobong Peak caps this Yosemite-esque experience.

The brochure for Mount Kumgang shows colorful photos in every season, but even in a chilly drizzle the three-hour trek was breathtaking. A river spilled down the narrow canyon to collect in crystal green pools.

“The water is pure and clear,” observed Yong-Sik Im, 41, who came to the mountain with 31 other residents of Namgu village. He recalled singing a song about Mount Kumgang as a schoolboy and always longed to visit.

South Korean hikers here are essentially pilgrims.

At Kumgang they see harmonious manifestations of heaven, earth and water, symbolized on the national flag. The mountain’s yin-yang mix of strength and fluidity has even inspired some movements in the Korean martial art of tae kwon do.

Byun said most South Koreans hope to visit this spot at least once before they die. More than 1.4 million have come since 1998, with a highway route open since 2003.

The site has also been used for meetings arranged by the Red Cross between family members separated by the border. Special accommodations for those families are due to open next year.

THE NORTH KOREAN security guards and snack vendors we met along the trail were polite, if cool, and talked little about their lifestyles except to say they are satisfied.

The exception was one particularly articulate female worker, obviously briefed on the six-nation nuclear talks and other current events, who criticized the United States for aggression. At least one North Korean said the United States deserved the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because of chronic warmongering.

Most of the North Korean workers, including the waitresses at the Okryukwan restaurant, where lunch was served after the hike, refused to be photographed. But over this caution hovered a palpable aura of promise.

Maybe it arises from the $400 million that Hyundai Asan has already spent on development above the $1 billion for rights.

About 1,500 people make a living here: 95 with Hyundai Asan, another 162 with other South Korean companies, about 780 North Koreans and 450 ethnic Koreans recruited by the North Koreans in China.

But don’t try to spend your South Korean currency in the North Korean shops.

Only U.S. dollars are accepted.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE (to your own Google Earth)

Using numerous maps, articles, and interviews I have mapped out North Korea by “industry” (or topic) on Google Earth.  This is the most authoritative map of North Korea that exists publicly today.

Agriculture, aviation, cultural, manufacturing, railroad, energy, politics, sports, military, religion, leisure, national parks…they are all here, and will captivate anyone interested in North Korea for hours.

Naturally, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of many locations since I have not seen or been to them, but great efforts have been made to check for authenticity. In many cases, I have posted sources, though not for all. This is a thorough compilation of lots of material, but I will leave it up to the reader to make up their own minds on the more “controversial” locations.  In time, I hope to expand this further by adding canal and road networks. 

I hope this post will launch a new interest in North Korea. There is still plenty more to learn, and I look forward to hearing about improvements that can be made.

Joong Ang Daily
Seo Ji-eun
4/17/2007

Hyundai Asan also plans to offer ‘doctor fish,’ which eat dead skin, at the Mount Kumgang spa.

Hyundai Asan Co. said yesterday it will launch a call taxi service at Mount Kumgang in North Korea on Friday to allow better tourist access to the scenic mountain area.

The van-sized taxis will run from the lodging facilities in the neighborhood of Onjeonggak rest area, where restaurants and souvenir shops are located, to Guryeong Falls and Manmulsang, an area with a number of unique rocks and cliffs.

Hyundai Asan, the exclusive operator of inter-Korean businesses, said taxi charges will be similar to the rate applied to van-sized call taxis in Seoul, except paid in dollars. The basic fare will be $5 for the initial distance of 4 kilometers and $1 per additional 800 meters.

Currently, shuttle buses are the sole means of transportation, but these operate only during designated hours and to designated places. An increasing demand for private transportation motivated Hyundai to execute the taxi plan, according to the company spokesman.

Tourists will only have to ask Hyundai Asan employees in any of the districts in the Mount Kumgang area to use the taxis, which will be driven by ethnic Koreans living across the Yalu River in Northwest China, often called joseonjok. The drivers of the buses currently running at the North Korean resort area are also joseonjok.

Hyundai Asan also said it will release doctor fish, a species of fish known to feed on dead skin, at the Mount Kumgang spa. The fish are in the midst of the quarantine process and will be unveiled to tourists by late this month. Using the fish at the spa will cost $10, according to Hyundai Asan.

Yonhap
4/15/2007

North Korea has launched a month-long mass gymnastics show as part of festivities to mark the 95th birthday of its late founding leader Kim Il-sung, the country’s new agency reported Sunday.

The Arirang Mass Games opened at Pyongyang’s May Day Stadium on the evening of Saturday, with hundreds of dancers and gymnasts performing against a gigantic backdrop of mosaic pictures formed by thousands students holding up colored panels, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il did not attend the opening show on the eve of his late father’s birthday, the agency said.

The show was held in 2002 and 2005, but was cancelled last year due to floods, causing hundreds of U.S. and Western tourists to cancel their planned trip to one of the world’s last remaining communist state.

This year’s show, which runs about 80 minutes starting at 8 p.m. every day except for Sunday, is expected to continue until May 20, Western tour organizers said.

This year’s show carries special meaning for North Korea, as it will celebrate the 95th anniversary of the birth of the late leader who died of heart failure in 1994. This year also marks the 62nd anniversary of the Korean Peninsula’s liberation from Japan’s colonial rule and the founding of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party.

The first version of Arirang, named after a famous traditional Korean folk song, was held for nearly five months in 2002, with about 100,000 students and ordinary people participating.

At that time, North Korea staged a promotional campaign for the festival, calling it a “once-in-a-millennium” event. Some viewed it as an effort to gain publicity at the time of the World Cup finals co-hosted by South Korea and Japan the same year.