13th World Festival of Youth and Students

1989 event in Pyongyang, North Korea January 2022 The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students 제13차 세계청년학생축전 Pyongyang13thWorldFestivalforYouthsandStudents.svg For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship North Korea 1989 Pyongyang 22,000, from 180 countries 14th World Festival of Youth and Students 12th World Festival of Youth and Students thumb|Soviet stamp promoting the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students The 13th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) was held from 1–8 July 1989 in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, and was organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth. It was the largest international event staged in North Korea up until then.Holley David 1989-06-29 Pyongyang Hosts Youth Festival : World Gets Rare Peek at N. Korea--and Vice Versa https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-29-mn-3529-story.html 2026-05-11 Los Angeles Times en-USOuellette Dean J Understanding the Socialist Tourism of North Korea Under Kim Jong Un North Korean Review Spring 2020 16 1 63 McFarland & Company 26912705 1551-2789 The event took four years of preparation by the North Korean government, which effectively spent a quarter of the country's yearly budget (4.5 billion) on it,Em Pavel P. Ward Peter City profile: is Pyongyang a post-socialist city? Cities January 2021 108 10.1016/j.cities.2020.102950 0264-2751 reportedly contributing to North Korea's economic downturn in the 1990s.Hall Nick 20 June 2023 The colorful legacy of North Korea’s counter-Olympic posters https://www.nknews.org/gallery/the-colorful-legacy-of-north-koreas-counter-olympic-posters-in-photos/ 11 May 2026 NK News The government built elaborate stadiums, shipped in Mercedes-Benz vehicles to tote around foreigners, and undertook other expensive architectural projects. Ultimately declared as the largest ever World Festival of Youth and Students, about 22,000 people from 177 countries took part in the festival, including 100 people from the United States. For eight days starting on 1 July 1989, the students participated in political discussions, sports competitions, and other activities.Oh, Kong D. "North Korea's Response to the World: Is the Door Ajar?" (n.d.): 1–16. RAND. Web. 19 October 2015. Many accounts described the festival as a reaction to Seoul's hosting of the 1988 Summer Olympics, which North Korea boycottedLankov, Andrei. "Asia Times Online :: Korea News and Korean Business and Economy, Pyongyang News." Asia Times Online :: Korea News and Korean Business and Economy, Pyongyang News. Asia Times, 13 August 2011. Web. 19 October 2015. after blowing the opportunity to co-host the Olympics. This event was the last festival held during the Cold War era as waves of unrest began to occur throughout the communist world later on in the year. Leading up to the event North Korea went through years of planning and building in preparation for the event. Plans for event infrastructure had already been drawn up in case Pyongyang would co-host the 1988 Olympics along with Seoul.Šamánková Karolína Benická Jana Navigating Czechoslovak Cold War Diplomacy: From the 1988 Seoul Olympics to the 1989 Pyongyang World Festival of Youth and Students Studia Orientalia Slovaca 2025 24 2 129-130 1336-3786 The $200-million Rungrado May Day Stadium was commissioned to serve as the festival's main venue,Santiago Carolina June 2020 Power Play in Pyongyang: City and Spaces as Theaters of Power under the early Kim regime in North Korea 1950s–1990s MA University of Puerto Rico https://www.academia.edu/43683120 64 its construction officially completed in time for the festival on 1 May 1989. At the time it was the largest stadium in Asia, capable of seating 150,000 people.Rungnado May First Stadium http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_menu/architecture/stadium_design/pyongyang_may_day.shtml World Stadiums 12 June 2014 5 June 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20110605184026/http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_menu/architecture/stadium_design/pyongyang_may_day.shtml dead A total of 260 new buildings and venues were constructed for the event, including Central Youth Hall, East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, Pyongyang Circus and Kwangbok Street. The North Korean government also worked with a South Korean student organization, the National Council of Student Representatives (Jeondaehyeop), which was organized on 19 August 1987. The organization concentrated its efforts on getting South Korean participation in order to express its anti-US and pro-reunification commitment.Choi, Hyaeweol. "The Societal Impact of Student Politics in Contemporary South Korea". Higher Education 22.2 (1991): 175–188. The group secretly sent one of its members, Lim Su-kyung, to the festival. Numerous posters aimed at both domestic and international audiences were created to promote the event. These posters used imagery including Korean mythology, foreign participants and Pyongyang landmarks, and three different event logos were used on different posters. Event thumb|alt=Crowds of people are gathered in a stadium with fireworks.|Opening festivities were held at the Rungrado May Day stadium On 1 July 1989, about 22,000 young people from 177 countries gathered in the Rungrado 1 May Stadium to inaugurate the festival.PETER M. "N. Korea Opens Doors to Stage Youth Festival." The Gazette: E11. 2 July 1989. ProQuest. Web. 14 November 2015 . For eight days, the participants took part in social, cultural, sports and political activities. The slogan of the festival was "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship". It was the first festival held in Asia and the first time the United States Department of Treasury allowed a group to travel to North Korea since the Korean War. Throughout this delegation's and others' time in Korea, however, the North Korean government imposed boundaries and restrictions on foreigners' movements and behavior, as well as constant surveillance over its own population. Danish activists caused a stir during the opening ceremony of the festival when they unfurled a banner criticizing North Korea's human rights abuses. Two of the three activists were taken into custody but soon released. At the festival, well over 1,000 events took place, from round-table political discussions, solidarity rallies, and plenary sessions, to sports matches, artistic performances, film showings and visits around Pyongyang and beyond.Van Mersbergen, Audrey. "The Rhetorical Reduction of the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students." The Internet Archive. N.p., Oct. 1992. Web. 14 November 2015. The political events of the festival primarily focused on anti-imperialist discussions as well as subjects such as peace and disarmament, nonalignment, human rights, and rights for youth and others.Kang, Induk. "The Aftermath of the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students." East Asian Review 1.3 (n.d.): n. pag. Odyssey. Web. 1 December 2015. There were also frequent bilateral meetings arranged for two countries at a time to talk over issues of economic and political concern. Each of the eight days of the festival was devoted to a specific theme: Opening ceremonies Peace Independence and national liberation struggles Environmental crisis Friendship and international solidarity Rights of youth and students Day of the host country Closing ceremonies Pyongyang declined Seoul's offer to contribute resources to festival events, particularly electronic equipment for the opening ceremony at the May Day Stadium. Three officials of the South Korean government did attend the festival, although their presence there was a secret at the time.Park Haenam The Interaction between Civil Society and the State in the History of Inter-Korean Sports Dialogue, 1988–2018 October 2020 206 Lim Su-kyung's participation A South Korean student named Lim Su-kyung became a poster child for the event, the North Korean government greatly publicizing her presence at the festival. The South Korean government, then dominated by hardline anti-communists, had banned its citizens from attending the event, but Lim Su-kyung's student association ignored the ban. Upon her arrival in Pyongyang, and throughout her time in North Korea, the public treated Lim like a celebrity, asking her questions about her ideology and broadcasting her activities during and after the visit. Dubbed the "Flower of Reunification", Lim was hailed by the North Korean government as a hero who sacrificed herself at the altar of Korean reunification. However, Lim's public appearance also revealed the positive elements of being a South Korean youth.Kim, S.-Y. "Documenting the "Flower of Reunification": Lim Su-gyeong and the Memories of Korean Border Crossing." Memory Studies 6.2 (2013): 204–17. Web. 14 November 2015. In contrast to the North Koreans' understanding that South Koreans lived a repressed life ridden with unhappiness and starvation under the colonial rule of the United States, they observed a healthy and well-spoken youth who expressed a willingness to give unscripted political statements to high officials. After the festival, Lim Su-kyung crossed the border back into South Korea, and the South Korean government, as forewarned, imprisoned her. The North Korean government then broadcast an interview with Lim Su-kyung's family in Seoul to its general population. Instead of portraying the harshness of the South Korean regime, the North Korean government showed the family in a nice home. To the puzzlement of the North Korean viewers, the family of a "political criminal" was not imprisoned and even allowed to stay in their home and keep their jobs. Some historians have concluded that North Korea failed to represent the superiority and popularity of its ideology through Lim Su-kyung. She interacted with North Koreans and gave her opinions on controversial matters, ultimately to the chagrin of North Korean officials, since she unexpectedly demonstrated the positive aspects of living in the South. Reception Contemporary news reports in the Western world in general saw the festival as a failed effort on the part of Kim Il Sung, and the North Korean government, to increase their standing in the international community. Through constant surveillance of the population and other restrictions, the North Korean government attempted to shield its population from foreign influence, but inevitably the festival had an external impact on the home population. Twenty journalists from the United States attended the festival. Nicholas Kristof recounted that "native North Koreans seem willing and happy to talk to foreigners, but conversations often sound exceedingly unnatural and fake and that it is rare for a minute to pass without a Korean offering praise to the 77-year-old 'great leader'."Nicholas Kristof North Korea Bids Hello to the World https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/01/world/north-korea-bids-hello-to-the-world.html The New York Times 1 July 1989 3 Some historians, however, posit that reporters rhetorically reduced the coverage of the festival to the North Korea / South Korea issue and the regime of North Korea, failing to discuss the actual content of the festival. From this perspective, reporters reducing the festival to a mere manipulation device for North Korea were guilty of the same qualities they sought to criticize. Some claim this journalistic bias gave a skewed international perception of the true meaning of the festival. Historical significance Hosting the Youth Festival had long lasting consequences for the North Korean government and its worldwide standing. After funneling billions of dollars into the festival's production, North Korea ended up owing five billion dollars in foreign debtJanuary 2020 and was considered bankrupt by creditor nations.March 2017 This damagedJanuary 2020 the country's economy and external status. The extravagant expenditures put North Korea into a hole it could not get out of, exacerbated by unfavourable economic conditions in the next decade with the fall of the Soviet Union and concurrent famine. Also, Lim Su-kyung as well as other representations of the outside world had unintended effects on the North Korean public. Contrary to some Western predictions that the inflow of foreign influence would contribute to North Korea's openness, after the festival Pyongyang tightened its control over its population in order to "wipe out all the remnants of 'foreign culture'". Historians such as Induk Kang believe North Korea reasserted its isolationism because its survival depended on the control of information into the country. Historian Andrei Lankov has concluded that even though the country increased information control after the festival, "this was the beginning of major changes" in the infiltration of foreign influence into North Korea, which led to a negative impact on the regime's political legitimacy. In the subsequent decade, advances in media technology and loosening of border controls with China caused further change in North Koreans' perception of the outside world. The Pyongyang Youth Festival is widely considered North Korea's competitive reaction to the Seoul Olympics, and ultimately the festival strained relations with South Korea. Yet prior to the festival, the media portrayed an optimistic outlook on Korean relations, largely due to the 7 July (1988) Declaration in which the South Korea president Roh Tae-woo regarded North Korea as a co-partner for achieving mutual prosperity. However, following the Pyongyang festival, "these confrontational feelings between the north and south began spreading widely among the masses of both sides," according to Induk Kang. After the festival, the South Korean president increased the stakes for reconciliation by demanding that the North change its political structure as a precondition to reunification, something usually only presented by the northern side. Therefore, the festival undermined previous reconciliation efforts between North and South Korea and caused them both to raise more uncooperative demands. Posters used to promote the event had a lasting impact on the style of artwork used by North Korea to promote its later events, with motifs reused in posters for 1995's Pyongyang International Sports and Culture Festival for Peace (also known as Collision in Korea), the April Spring Friendship Art Festival, the Pyongyang International Film Festival and Arirang Mass Games. See also North Korea 1980s World Festival of Youth and Students World Federation of Democratic Youth Rungrado May Day Stadium References Further reading Utopias Elsewhere: Journeys in a Vanishing World Theodore Dalrymple Daniels Anthony 0-517-58548-0 1991 Crown Pub. registration https://archive.org/details/utopiaselsewhere00dani Myrseth August 2016 Beyond Politics of Revenge: Recontextualizing the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students Master's thesis London SOAS https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320190980 External links Official Website of the World Federation of Democratic Youth https://web.archive.org/web/20170626204224/http://www.wfdy.org/ 26 June 2017 Chronology of World Festivals of Youth and Students North Korea Youth Festival 1989 (Russian) "The Secret History of Kim Jong Il", By Kim Hyun Sik, Foreign Policy, 1 September 2008 Podcast miniseries on the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students (2019) at NK News Category:World Festival of Youth and Students Category:1989 in North Korea Category:1989 conferences Category:Festivals in North Korea Category:20th century in Pyongyang Category:Sports festivals in North Korea