[KS] Info about Pyongyang

[BJ]

Dear All, 

Thank you so much for your contributions to answering my questions about Pyongyang and special thanks to Chris Springer priceless knowledge, whose book had already helped me to fill so many gaps... You really are a 평양 만물 박사, no offense intended! Prof. Dege article, Dr Meuser's book were also very precious.
Yours,

Benjamin

Envoyé de mon iPad

Le 2012. 9. 14. à 오후 8:46, "Chris Springer" <springer at hiddenhistory.info> a écrit :

> 
> Dear Benjamin Joinau -
> 
> It sounds like you've already seen my book "Pyongyang: The Hidden
> History of the North Korean Capital." I think I can answer some
> of your questions with more specific information than is found
> in the book.
> 
> 1. Korean Central History Museum: it used to be on Moran Hill
> before 1977 (it is said to have opened there in 1945). Where
> was it located? 
> 
> **The State Museum of History, as it was then called, was located
> near Ulmil Pavilion on Moran Hill.
> 
> 
> 4. The Korea Art Gallery had been closed for "renovations" for
> years. When has it reopened? (If it has). Was it opened first
> in 1954 or 1960?
> 
> **I'm not sure about the reopening. Pyongyang Review (Pyongyang,
> 1995) says it first opened in September 1954.
> 
> 
> 5. Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum: it is said to
> have opened initially in August 1953, but before being rebuilt
> in its actual location in 1974, where was it located?
> 
> **This was near Haebang Hill, which is now part of the off-limits
> Workers' Party area. A European who lived in Pyongyang long ago
> told me this.
> 
> 
> 6. Chris Springer says that the Three-Revolutions Exhibition
> opened in 1993 (I have 1992 in another source.), on the site
> of a former "exhibition". Does anybody know what kind of exhibition
> it was?
> 
> **I got the 1993 opening date from the magazine Korea Today.
> The former exhibition was the "Exhibition of Achievements of
> Socialist Construction." Based on its name, its purpose was probably
> similar to that of the Three-Revolutions Exhibition. 
> 
> 
> 7. Was the USS Pueblo moved from Wonsan to Pyongyang in 1999?
> (I found different dates).
> 
> **In 1999 the Korea Herald reported that the ship had just been
> moved. In 2002 it was temporarily moved back to Wonsan. 
> 
> 
> 9. Does anybody know the date of construction of Mansudae Art
> Studio? And why it was named this way despite the fact that it
> is not in Mansudae area?
> 
> **According to KCNA, the studio was "created" in 1959, but I
> don't know whether that's when the current premises were opened.
> I'm not sure why the name was chosen, but their signature project
> is the Mansudae Grand Monument, the huge statue of Kim Il Sung
> (and now Kim Jong Il).
> 
> 
> 10.   When was the Kim Il Sung Stadium first built (before the
> extensions and renovations of the 1970's and 1980's, when it
> was still called the Moranbong Stadium)?
> 
> **Multiple North Korean publications say Moranbong Stadium was
> built in 1954.  Note: one source says it was "reconstructed"
> in 1954, implying that some structure may have existed before
> the war. (There definitely had been at 
> least a sports field on the site.)
> 
> 
> 11.   From when the site of Anhak palace in Taesong area has
> been "discovered" and opened to the public?
> 
> **Excavation of the site took place under Kim Il Sung - I don't
> have a date for that. In 1987 Kim Il Sung ordered the palace
> to be rebuilt, but I'm pretty sure this has not happened and
> that it is still just an empty field. I don't know since when
> (or even if) the site is "open to the public" in the sense that
> tourists are brought there. The relics found at the site are
> displayed not there but in the history museum.
> 
> 
> 12.   When did the so-called mausoleum or tomb of Tangun open
> to the public: 1993 or 1994?
> 
> **Pyongyang Review (Pyongyang, 1995) says it was completed October
> 11, 1994. I too have seen the 1993 date, but that may refer to
> when ground was broken for the reconstructed tomb. Supposedly
> one of Kim Il Sung's last acts before his July 1994 death was
> to look over the blueprints for the tomb.
> 
> Best from Chris Springer
> 
> 
> 
> 
>