Urban development of Pyongiang under the influence of Juche idea

Zorica Pogrmić, Bojan Djerčan

Abstract


In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), urban planning and urban architecture reflect the interest of the working class. The goal for the working class was to develop a specific type of urban planning, as a result of which the DPRK introduced a socialist model of urban planning. Until the beginning of 1970, the DPRK depended on the influence of the USSR, it wanted to go beyond that framework, especially in the field of urban planning and architecture. In the early 1970s, Kim Il-sung presented the thesis of Juche's idea, which encompasses all aspects of society. During the 1980s, Pyongyang was promoted to the world as the socialist capital of the world. However, in the 21st century, Korean architecture has noticed many changes compared to the past. In addition to remaining faithful to rationality and monumentality, social differences were given to special groups. Since the arrival and rise of Kim Jong-un to power, the newly built parts of Pyongyang are reminiscent of the physiognomy of capitalist cities.

Key words: Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Juche idea, urban planning, urban development

© 2021 Serbian Geographical Society, Belgrade, Serbia.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Serbia


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