.jpg) The Juche Tower at night | |
 Interactive map of Juche Tower | |
| Location | Pyongyang, North Korea |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°01′03″N125°45′49″E / 39.0176°N 125.7637°E /39.0176; 125.7637 |
| Designer | Kim Jong Il |
| Material | Granite and white stone |
| Height | 170 metres (560 ft) |
| Completion date | 1982 (1982) |
| Dedicated to | Juche |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 주체사상탑 |
| Hanja | 主體思想塔 |
| RR | Juche sasangtap |
| MR | Chuch'e sasangt'ap |
TheJuche Tower (more formally, theTower of the Juche Idea;Korean: 주체사상탑), completed in 1982, is a 170-metre (560 ft) monument inPyongyang, the capital ofNorth Korea, and the tallest structure in the city. The monument is named after the ideology ofJuche introduced by the country's firstleader,Kim Il Sung.
The Juche Tower is situated on the east bank of theRiver Taedong, directly oppositeKim Il Sung Square on the west bank. It was built to commemorateKim Il Sung's 70thbirthday.
The 170-metre (560 ft) structure is composed of a four-sided tapering 150-metre (490 ft) spire – the tallestgranite structure in the world – containing 25,550 blocks (one for each day of Kim Il Sung's life),[1] dressed in white stone with seventy dividers and capped with a 20-metre (66 ft)-high 45-ton permanently illuminated metal torch.
The Juche Tower is situated on the east bank of theRiver Taedong, directly oppositeKim Il Sung Square on the west bank. It was built to commemorateKim Il Sung's 70thbirthday. Although his son and successorKim Jong Il is officially credited as its designer,[2] interviews with North Korean former officials contradict this assertion.[3]
The architectural style of the Tower is inspired by stonepagodas of premodern Korea.[4] The 170-metre (560 ft) structure is a four-sided tapering 150-metre (490 ft) spire – the tallest ingranite – containing 25,550 blocks (365 × 70: one for each day of Kim Il Sung's life, excluding supplementary days for leap years),[5] dressed in white stone with seventy dividers and capped with a 20-metre (66 ft)-high 45-ton illuminated metal torch.
The torch on top of the tower is always lit.[6] It is possible to ascend the tower by elevator and there are wide views over Pyongyang from the viewing platform just below the torch.
At its base, there are reception rooms where videos explaining the tower's ideological importance are sometimes shown. The Juche Tower is the second-tallest monumental column in the world after theSan Jacinto Monument in Texas, United States, which is 2.9 metres (9.5 ft) taller.
Associated with the tower is a 30-metre-high (98 ft) statue consisting of three idealised figures each holding a tool – a hammer (the worker); asickle (the peasant); and awriting brush (the "workingintellectual") – in a classicStalinist-style reminiscent of the Soviet statueWorker and Kolkhoz Woman. The three tools form the emblem of the rulingWorkers' Party of Korea. There are also six smaller groups of figures, each 10 metres (33 ft) high, that symbolize other aspects ofJuche ideology.
A wall carrying 82 friendshipplaques from foreign supporters and Juche study groups forms part of the Tower.[7]
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