1.
Pyongyang
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Pyongyang is the capital and largest city of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The city was split from the South Pyongan province in 1946 and it is administered as a directly governed city on the same level as provincial governments, as opposed to a special city as Seoul is in South Korea. Pyongyang literally means Flat Land in Korean, one of Pyongyangs many historic names is Ryugyong, or capital of willows, as willow trees have always been numerous throughout the citys history, this served as an inspiration for many poems. Even today, the city has numerous trees, with many buildings. The most notable of these is the impressive Ryugyong Hotel, started in 1987, the citys other historic names include Kisong, Hwangsong, Rakrang, Sŏgyong, Sodo, Hogyong, Changan, and Heijō. During the early 20th century, Pyongyang came to be known among missionaries as being the Jerusalem of the East, due to its status as a stronghold of Christianity. In 1955, archaeologists excavated evidence of occupation in a large ancient village in the Pyongyang area, called Kŭmtan-ni. North Koreans associate Pyongyang with Asadal, or Wanggomsŏng, the first second millennium BC capital of the Gojoseon kingdom according to Korean history books, notably Samguk Yusa. Many South Korean historians deny this claim because other Chinese history books such as the Guanzi, Shanhaijing, Shiji, the connection between the two therefore may have been asserted by North Korea for the use of propaganda. Nevertheless, Pyongyang became a city under Gojoseon. Pyongyang was founded in 1122 BC on the site of the Tangun Dynastys capital and it is likely that the area of Pyongyang belonged to Wiman Joseon, the shortest-lasting part of Gojoseon if both Dangun and Gija Joseon were real, which fell in the Gojoseon–Han War in 108 BC. Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty ordered four commanderies be set up, with Lelang Commandery in the center, several archaeological findings from the later, Eastern Han period in the Pyongyang area seems to suggest that Han forces later launched brief incursions around these parts. The area around the city was called Nanglang during the early Three Kingdoms period, as the capital of Nanglang kingdom, Pyongyang remained an important commercial and cultural outpost after Lelang Commandery was destroyed by an expanding Goguryeo in 313. Goguryeo moved its capital there in 427, according to Christopher Beckwith, Pyongyang is the Sino-Korean reading of the name they gave it in their language, Piarna, or level land. In 668, Pyongyang became the capital of the Protectorate General to Pacify the East established by the Tang dynasty of China, however, by 676, it was taken by Silla, but left on the border between Silla and Balhae. This lasted until the time of the Goryeo dynasty, when the city was revived as Sŏgyŏng although it was never actually a capital of the kingdom and it was the provincial capital of the Pyeongan Province during the Joseon dynasty. During the Japanese invasions of Korea, Pyongyang was captured by the Japanese until the Japanese were defeated in the Siege of Pyongyang, later in the 17th century, it became temporarily occupied during Second Manchu invasion of Korea until peace arrangements were made between Korea and the Manchus. While the invasions made Koreans suspicious of foreigners, the influence of Christianity began to grow after the country opened itself up to foreigners in the 16th century
2.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
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North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia, constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is both the capital as well as its largest city. To the north and northwest the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok, the country is bordered to the south by South Korea, with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone separating the two. Negotiations on reunification failed, and in 1948 two separate governments were formed, the communist Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in the north, an invasion initiated by North Korea led to the Korean War. The Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire, and no peace treaty was ever signed. North Korea officially describes itself as a self-reliant socialist state and formally holds elections, critics regard it as a totalitarian dictatorship. Various outlets have called it Stalinist, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around Kim Il-sung, International organizations have assessed human rights violations in North Korea as belonging to a category of their own, with no parallel in the contemporary world. Over time, North Korea has gradually distanced itself from the world communist movement, Juche, an ideology of national self-reliance, was introduced into the constitution as a creative application of Marxism–Leninism in 1972. The means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises, most services such as healthcare, education, housing and food production are subsidized or state-funded. From 1994 to 1998, North Korea suffered from a famine that resulted in the deaths of between 0.24 and 3.5 million people, and the continues to struggle with food production. North Korea follows Songun, or military-first policy and it is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the fourth largest in the world, after China, North Korea is an atheist state with no official religion and where public religion is discouraged. The name Korea derives from the name Goryeo, the name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a shortened form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After the division of the country into North and South Korea, the two sides used different terms to refer to Korea, Chosun or Joseon in North Korea, in 1948, North Korea adopted Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea as its new legal name. After the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Korea was occupied by Japan, Japan tried to suppress Korean traditions and culture and ran the economy primarily for its own benefit. Korean resistance groups known as Dongnipgun operated along the Sino-Korean border, some of them took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia. One of the leaders was the communist Kim Il-sung, who later became the leader of North Korea
3.
World Federation of Democratic Youth
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The World Federation of Democratic Youth is an international youth organization, recognized by the United Nations as an international youth non-governmental organization. WFDY describes itself as an anti-imperialist, left-wing organization, the WFDY Headquarters are in Budapest, Hungary. The main event of WFDY is the World Festival of Youth, the last festival was successfully held in Quito, Ecuador, in December 2013. It was one of the first organizations granted general consultative status with the United Nations Economic, on November 10,1945, the World Youth Conference, organized in London, founded the World Federation of Democratic Youth. This historic conference was convened at the initiative of the World Youth Council which was formed during World War II to encourage the fight against fascism by the youth of the allied nations and it adopted a pledge for peace. Shortly after, with the onset of the Cold War and Winston Churchills Iron Curtain speech, many of the founding organizations quit, leaving mostly youth from socialist nations, national liberation movements, and communist youth. The WFYDs first General Secretary, Alexander Shelepin, was a leader of the Young Communist International which had been dissolved in 1943. Shelepin had been a fighter during World War II. Both the WFDY and IUS vocally criticized the Marshall Plan, supported the Czechoslovak coup détat of 1948, the main event of the WFDY became the World Festival of Youth and Students, a massive political and cultural celebration for peace and friendship between the youth of the world. Most, but not all, of the festivals were held in socialist nations in Europe. Famous people who participated in festivals included Angela Davis, Yuri Gagarin, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Ruth First, when the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc collapsed, the WFDY entered a crisis. With the power left by the collapse of the most important member organization. Some wanted a more structure, whereas others were more inclined to an openly leftist federation. The WFDY, however, survived this crisis, and is today an international youth organization that holds regular activities
4.
Seoul
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The Seoul Capital Area houses up to half of the countrys population of 50.22 million people with 678,102 international residents. Situated on the Han River, Seouls history stretches back more than two years when it was founded in 18 BCE by Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. It continued as the capital of Korea under the Joseon Dynasty, the Seoul Capital Area contains five UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Changdeok Palace, Hwaseong Fortress, Jongmyo Shrine, Namhansanseong and the Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty. Seoul is surrounded by mountains, the tallest being Mt. Bukhan, in 2015, it was rated Asias most livable city with the second highest quality of life globally by Arcadis. In 2014, the citys GDP per capita of $39,786 was comparable to that of France and Finland. Ranked sixth in the Global Power City Index and Global Financial Centres Index, Seoul is the worlds most wired city and ranked first in technology readiness by PwCs Cities of Opportunity report. It is served by the KTX high-speed rail and the Seoul Subway, providing 4G LTE, WiFi, Seoul is connected via AREX to Incheon International Airport, rated the worlds best airport nine years in a row by Airports Council International. Lotte World Tower, a 556-metre supertall skyscraper with 123 floors, has built in Seoul and become the OECDs tallest in 2016. Its Lotte Cinema houses the worlds largest cinema screen, Seouls COEX Mall is the worlds largest underground shopping mall. Seoul hosted the 1986 Asian Games,1988 Summer Olympics,2002 FIFA World Cup, the Miss Universe 1980 pageant, a UNESCO City of Design, Seoul was named the 2010 World Design Capital. The city has known in the past by the names Wirye-seong, Hanju. During Japans annexation in Korea, Hanseong was renamed to Keijō by the Imperial authorities to prevent confusion with the hanja 漢, in reality, the ancient name of Seoul, Hanseong, originally had the meaning of big or vast. Its current name originated from the Korean word meaning city, which is believed to be derived from the word Seorabeol, which originally referred to Gyeongju. Unlike most place names in Korea, Seoul has no corresponding hanja, on January 18,2005, Seoul government officially changed its official Chinese language name to Shouer from the historic Hancheng, of which use is becoming less common. Settlement of the Han River area, where present-day Seoul is located, Seoul is first recorded as Wiryeseong, the capital of Baekje in the northeastern Seoul area. There are several city walls remaining in the area date from this time. Pungnaptoseong, a wall just outside Seoul, is widely believed to have been at the main Wiryeseong site. As the Three Kingdoms competed for this region, control passed from Baekje to Goguryeo in the 5th century
5.
1988 Summer Olympics
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The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia, in the Seoul Games,159 nations were represented by a total of 8,391 athletes,6,197 men and 2,194 women. 263 events were held and 27,221 volunteers helped to prepare the Olympics,11,331 media showed the Games all over the world. These were the last Olympic Games for two of the worlds dominating sport powers, the Soviet Union and East Germany, as both ceased to exist before the next Olympic Games. North Korea, still officially at war with South Korea, and its allies, Albania, Ethiopia, Cuba, Madagascar, Nicaragua boycotted the games because of the U. S. military support to the Contra rebels. However, the much larger boycotts seen in the previous three Summer Olympics were avoided, resulting in the largest ever number of participating nations during the Cold War era, before the opening of the games, thousands of homeless were captured by the police and sent to work camps. Several died under torture. ′ Seoul was chosen to host the Summer Games through a vote held on 30 September 1981, below was the vote count that occurred at the 84th IOC Session and 11th Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden, West Germany. After the Olympics were awarded, Seoul also received the opportunity to stage the 10th Asian Games in 1986, Soviet Vladimir Artemov won four gold medals in gymnastics. Daniela Silivaş of Romania won three and equalled compatriot Nadia Comănecis record of seven Perfect 10s in one Olympic Games, to these medals, she added a gold in the 4×100 relay and a silver in the 4×400. Just after the Games, she announced her retirement, Canadian Ben Johnson won the 100 m final with a new world record, but was disqualified after he tested positive for stanozolol. Johnson has since claimed that his positive test was the result of sabotage, the US finishes in fourth place after the completion of the optional rounds with a combined score of 390.575, three tenths of a point behind the German Democratic Republic. The USSR won their team gold medals in artistic gymnastics on both the mens and womens sides with scores of 593.350 and 395.475 respectively. The mens team was led by Vladimir Artemov, while Elena Shushunova lead the womens team, lawrence Lemieux, a Canadian sailor in the Finn class, was in second place and poised to win a silver medal when he abandoned the race to save an injured competitor. He arrived in 21st place, but was recognized by the IOC with the Pierre de Coubertin medal honoring his bravery and sacrifice. U. S. diver Greg Louganis won back-to-back titles on both diving events, but only hitting the springboard with his head in the 3 m event final. This became a minor controversy years later when Louganis revealed he knew he was HIV-positive at the time, since HIV cannot survive in open water, no other divers were ever in danger. Christa Luding-Rothenburger of East Germany became the first athlete to win Olympic medals at the Winter Olympics and she added a cycling silver to the speed skating gold she won earlier in the Winter Olympics of that year in Calgary. Swimmer Kristin Otto of East Germany won six gold medals, other multi-medalists in the pool were Matt Biondi and Janet Evans
6.
Rungrado 1st of May Stadium
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The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, completed on May 1,1989. It is the largest stadium in the world, with a capacity of 114,000. The site occupies an area of 20.7 hectares and it is currently used for football matches, a few athletics events, but most often for Arirang Festival performances. The stadium can seat 114,000, which ranks it on the list of largest stadiums by capacity in the world and its name comes from Rungrado Islet in the Taedong River, upon which it is situated, and May Day, the international labour day. Its scalloped roof features 16 arches arranged in a ring, and it is not to be confused with the nearby 50,000 capacity Kim Il-sung Stadium. It hosts events on a main pitch sprawling across over 22,500 m² and its total floor space is over 207,000 m² across eight stories, and the lobes of its roof peak at more than 60 m from the ground. While the stadium is used for sporting events, it is most famous as the site of performances and shows celebrating Kim Il-sung. In June–July 2002 it was the site of a large choreographed Arirang Festival gymnastic and artistic performance, the extravaganza involved for the first time some 100, 000+ participants—double the number of spectators, and was open to foreigners. These performances are now a feature in Pyongyang, usually in August. The Guinness Book of Records has recognized these events as the largest in the world, in the late 1990s, a number of North Korean army generals implicated in an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-il were executed via burning in the stadium. In 2000 Kim Jong-il entertained Madeleine Albright, the U. S. Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, collision in Korea was the largest professional wrestling pay-per-view event ever that was jointly produced by World Championship Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling. It took place over a period of two days on April 28 and 29,1995 at the stadium and had an attendance of 150,000 and 190,000 according to local authorities and it did not air in North America until August 4,1995. American wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer has stated that the combined attendance for the two-day-event was somewhere around 160,000 total. After a 2-year renovation project, the stadium reopened its doors in 2015
7.
Theodore Dalrymple
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Anthony Malcolm Daniels, who generally uses the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, is an English writer and retired prison doctor and psychiatrist. He worked in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries as well as in the east end of London, before his retirement in 2005, he worked in City Hospital, Birmingham and Winson Green Prison in inner-city Birmingham, England. Daniels is an editor to City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute. He is the author of a number of books, including Life at the Bottom, The Worldview That Makes the Underclass, Our Culture, Whats Left of It, much of Dalrymples writing is based on his experience of working with criminals and the mentally ill. Daniels has been described as a pessimist, in 2010, Daniel Hannan wrote that Dalrymples work takes pessimism about human nature to a new level. Yet its tone is never patronising, shrill or hectoring, once you get past the initial shock of reading about battered wives, petty crooks and junkies from a non-Left perspective, you find humanity and pathos. In 2011, Dalrymple received the 2011 Freedom Prize from the Flemish think tank Libera, born in Kensington, London, Danielss father was a Communist businessman of Russian ancestry, while his Jewish mother was born in Germany. She came to England as a refugee from the Nazi regime and his work as a doctor took him to Southern Rhodesia, Tanzania, South Africa, and the Gilbert Islands. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1990, where he worked in London, in 1991, he made an extended appearance on British television under the name Theodore Dalrymple. On 23 February, he took part in an After Dark discussion called Prisons, No Way Out alongside former gangster Tony Lambrianou, Taki Theodoracopolous, in 2005 he retired early as a consultant psychiatrist. He lives in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, from where he continues to write and he is an atheist, but has criticised anti-theism and says that to regret religion is to regret our civilisation and its monuments, its achievements, and its legacy. Raised in a non-religious Jewish home, he began doubting the existence of a God at age nine and he became an atheist in response to a moment in a school assembly. Daniels has also used pen names, notably Edward Theberton. As Edward Theberton, he has written articles for The Spectator from countries in Africa and he used the name Thursday Msigwa when he wrote Filosofas Republic, a satire of Tanzania under Julius Nyerere. He may also have used pen name, in addition to his bona fide name. Daniels began sending unsolicited articles to The Spectator in the early 1980s, his first published work, charles Moore wrote in 2004 that Theodore Dalrymple, then writing under a different pseudonym, is the only writer I have ever chosen to publish on the basis of unsolicited articles. Between 1984 and 1991 Daniels published articles in The Spectator under the pseudonym Edward Theberton, Daniels has written extensively on culture, art, politics, education, and medicine – often drawing on his experiences as a doctor and psychiatrist in Africa and the United Kingdom. Now he is its unmatched chronicler and it is Theodores misfortune to occupy a place beyond the mental co-ordinates of most commissioning editors
8.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
9.
1st World Festival of Youth and Students
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The First World Festival of Youth and Students was held in 1947, in Prague, the capital of the then Czechoslovakia. This caused a wave of repression that included the closing of all the schools, the arrest of more than 1850 students. The WFYS was officially inaugurated before a crowd of 17,000 at Strahov Stadium on the afternoon of July 25,1947 and this was the longest Festival in its history, lasting almost four weeks. Among the sporting events was an athletics competition, the motto of the festival was Youth Unite, Forward for Lasting Peace. Chronology of World Festivals of Youth and Students
10.
2nd World Festival of Youth and Students
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The Second World Festival of Youth and Students was held in 1949, in Budapest, a city still recuperating from World War II. The 2nd WFYS was one of three major events held in Hungary in 1949, along with the World University Summer Games. For two weeks, the took part in cultural, sport, and political activities. It was the first time that a delegation from what would become East Germany took part and it featured a sports programme, including an athletics competition. The motto of the festival was, Youth Unite, forward for Lasting Peace, Democracy, National Independence and a better future for the people. Chronology of World Festivals of Youth and Students
11.
3rd World Festival of Youth and Students
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The Third World Festival of Youth and Students was held in 1951, in East Berlin, East Germany, and organised by World Federation of Democratic Youth. The festival was meant to showcase the young German Democratic Republic, the motto of the festival was, For Peace and Friendship – Against Nuclear Weapons. People from west were obstructed from travelling to the festival by West German police, some of them where shot at, when trying to cross the border. The festivals sports programme featured an athletics competition, chronology of World Festivals of Youth and Students
12.
4th World Festival of Youth and Students
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The Fourth World Festival of Youth and Students was held in 1953, in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Other stated goals of the festival were to protest against the Korean War and to support the anti-colonial movements in the French colonies of Algeria, with this background, the festival and its preparation became anti-war demonstrations. It was held 2–14 August 1953, at the newly built 23 August Stadium, more than 30,000 young people from 111 countries participated in the Festival. The motto of the festival was No and our generation will not serve death and destruction. The festivals sports programme featured an athletics competition, chronology of World Festivals of Youth and Students 1953. În Miez de Noapte Consiliul de Miniştri Pregăteşte Festivalul Mondial al Tineretului, by Ioan Lacusta
