North Korea to stage spectacular mass games after five-year break

In another hint that North Korea may be increasingly willing to engage with the international community, Pyongyang has announced that its spectacular mass games will return this September after a five-year hiatus. 

Traditionally, the mass games have involved as many as 100,000 performers in massive synchronised displays of gymnastics and dance in the 150,000-seat Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, the largest such venue of its kind in the world. 

Pyongyang has provided no explanations either for why the mass games were suspended in 2013 or why they are resuming now, although the bout of detente that has taken place between North Korea, its immediate neighbours and the United States since the turn of the year may have had a bearing on the decision. 

“We heard the first rumours that the games might return back in late February but we only got final confirmation on Monday”, said Simon Cockerell, general manager of Beijing-based Koryo Tours. “But we are hearing that practices are taking place all over Pyongyang right now”. 

The most famous mass games event were the Arirang performances, which told the propagandistic tale of North Korea’s resurgence after the twin tragedies of Japanese colonial rule and then war. 

This year’s event is titled “Shining Fatherland” and is likely to be a similarly patriotic performance that extols the nation’s leadership and resilience. 

“We do not have many details of the games yet, but I imagine it will be familiar in form but different in terms of content from previous events”, Mr Cockerell told The Telegraph. 

Pyongyang has announced that the mass games will start on September 9 - a national holiday that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the republic - and are scheduled to run until September 30. That may very well be extended to October 10, the national holiday celebrating the foundation of the Workers’ Party. 

Koryo Tours has already received numerous inquiries and bookings from people wanting to attend the games, although US nationals have been banned from travelling to North Korea since the death of Otto Warmbier, a student who was sentenced to 15 years in prison after stealing a propaganda banner from a hotel in Pyongyang. Mr Warmbier died in June 2017, shortly after being repatriated.