Tens of thousands of performers in Pyongyang took part in the first of North Korea's spectacular "Mass Games" propaganda displays for 2019, but the show left leader Kim Jong Un unimpressed. The "Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance" features enormous numbers of people - mostly students and children - performing synchronised moves. Behind them, thousands of turn the coloured pages of books in sequence to create an ever-changing backdrop of giant images rippling across one side of the stadium.
Participants leapt through flaming hoops and bounced on trampolines as fireworks soared into the night sky. But Kim was underwhelmed by the production, titled "The Land of the People". After the show "he called creators of the performance and seriously criticised them for their wrong spirit of creation and irresponsible work attitude", the North's official KCNA news agency reported Tuesday. Noting that artists "have a very important duty in socialist cultural construction", Kim "set forth important tasks for correctly implementing the revolutionary policy of our Party on literature and art", KCNA added.
It was not clear what had infuriated the leader. But reports said that as well as portraits of the North's founder Kim Il Sung and successor Kim Jong Il - the current leader's grandfather and father respectively - the backdrop images also featured one of Kim Jong Un himself.
The third generation of the family to rule the country, unlike his predecessors he is rarely depicted in portraits and no statues of him are known to exist. When the North's state broadcaster reported on the show Tuesday it did not carry any footage of his portrait. The North Korean leader was accompanied to the performance by his wife Ri Sol Ju and his sister and close aide Kim Yo Jong, KCNA said.
It was the first time it had mentioned Kim Yo Jong for nearly two months, since the Hanoi summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump broke up in February without reaching agreement over sanctions relief and the North's nuclear programme. Among the senior government officials present was Kim Yong Chol, KCNA said.
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