Torchlight Parade Held

A torchlight parade and fireworks display by elite members of the Youth League was held during the evening of September 10 (Monday) to mark the 70th birthday of the DPRK.

Coming out to the platform were Supreme People’s Assembly [SPA] Presidium President Kim Yong Nam (Kim Yo’ng-nam), State Affairs Commission Vice Chairman and Premier Pak Pong Ju (Pak Pong-chu), Korean People’s Army [KPA] Senior Adviser and Operations Command Group member VMar Ri Myong Su (Ri Myo’ng-su), SPA Presidium Vice President Yang Hyong Sop (Yang Hyong-sop) WPK Vice Chairmen Thae Jong Su (T’ae Cho’ng-su), O Su Yong (O Su-yo’ng) and Choe Hwi (Ch’oe Hwi), WPK Central Inspection [Control] Commission Chairman Jo Yon Jun (Cho Yo’n-chun), Pyongyang WPK City Committee Chairman Kim Nung O (Kim Nu’ng-o) and Youth League head Pak Chol Min (Pak Ch’o’l-min) along with various other senior officials of the party, state, army and security forces and WPK Provincial Committee Chairmen.  Foreign VIPs such as Cuban Vice President Salvador Antonio Valdes Mesa and senior Ba’ath Party official Hilal Hilal sat on the platform.

Also in attendance were various chief functionaries and cadres of the WPK Central Committee, DPRK Cabinet Ministries and Commissions, various national institutions, service members and officers of the KPA and Korean People’s Internal Security Forces and various workers and functionaries who have received state titles and awards.  Various delegations of Koreans from other countries were also in attendance, as well as other foreign guests and diplomats, defense attaches and NGO reps resident in the DPRK.

With the opening of the torch process declared, characters spelling out “September 9” and “Celebrations 70” were formed whilst the song “The Glorious Country” played.  Open-topped limousines bearing Kim Il Sung (Kim Il-so’ng) and Kim Jong Il (Kim Cho’ng-il) portraits rode through Kim Il Sung Square under the escort of young DPRK citizens bearing torches.

DPRK students and young people formed torch-illuminated characters spelling out “Kim Il Sung’s Nation” and “Kim Jong Il’s Korea” and showing the sun.  They depicted the Party’s emblem and characters spelling out “Kim Jong Un’s (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) era,” “Supreme Leader,” and “Banner of Victory.”

The torchlight process continued forming characters which read “Heroic Korea” and “Single-minded Unity.”  The formations were tightly choreographed “demonstrating the dignity of socialist Korea” and represented “figures portraying the torchlight holder of the Tower of the Chuch’e Idea and Monument to Party Founding.”  The torchlight display reflected “the best wishes of all the people and youth for Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un,” and the fireworks “of celebration went off to significantly decorate the end of the torchlight procession.”