Sports - Korean Friendship Association

Physical culture is popularized and made part and parcel of one’s life in the DPRK and sports are developed to suit the characteristics and physical constitution of Koreans.

Mass physical culture such as morning exercise, exercises during recesses and collective jogging, and sports games including football, table tennis, volleyball, basketball, tennis and badminton are played in streets, villages, workplaces and at schools and recreation places. Folk games such as swinging, seesawing and Korean wrestling are encouraged.

The Korea University of Physical Education and juvenile sports schools train talented sportspersons and professionals.

There are many sports bases and facilities across the country. Among them are the Kim II Sung Stadium, May Day Stadium, Pyongyang Indoor Stadium and Taekwon-Do Hall and other stadiums for each event in the sports village on Chongchun Street of Pyongyang, and wintertime training centre in the Samjiyon area.

In line with the policy of the Party and the State on attaching importance to physical culture and sports, many sports facilities have been renovated and sufficient material and technical conditions and environment for the development of sports are being provided. Typical sports facilities newly built are Thongilgori Fitness Centre, Yanggakdo Sports Village, People’s Open-Air Ice Rink, Roller Skating Ground, Masikryong Ski Resort, Meari Shooting Gallery, Mirim Riding Club and Mirim Aviation Club. Stadiums are always busy with national or international games.

Korean sportspeople have taken part in international games including the Olympics, World and Asian championships, and the Asian Games, and won many medals.

At the 8th. FIFA World Cup Finals held in Juche 55 (1966), the DPRK team, representing Asia and Oceania, defeated the Italian team and became one of the Last Eight, to the amazement of the world. At the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championship held in Russia in Juche 95 (2006) the DPRK team took the first place.

At the Taekwon-Do World Championships, the country’s men and women players have registered excellent scores in such events as pattern, sparring and power show, exalting the country’s dignity and honour as the native land of Taekwon-Do.

At the 30th Olympics held in England in Juche 101 (2012) the country’s sportspeople won gold medals in the 56-kg category of men’s weightlifting, 52-kg category of women’s judo and 69-kg category of women’s weightlifting and broke the world and Olympic records in the 62-kg category of men’s weightlifting and brought home golds.

The Reuters, BBC and many other foreign media reported that the country’s sportspeople were raising a gust of wind, stressing that their victory was ascribable to their boundless loyalty to and trust in their leader and fervent love for their country and people.

Korean Taekwon-Do

Taekwon-Do is one of Korean national martial arts, in which hands and feet are used to attack and defend from the opponent without using any weapons.

Practicing ii is portrayed lifelike on the tomb murals of the Koguryo period, when martial spirit was worshipped across the nation.

As regards its technical movements, it combines Koguryo’s Subakhui with Thaekkyon and Nalpharam, which originated from Subakhui. Korean language alone is used in the TaekwonDo games.

The uniform of the Taekwon-Do practitioners is also modelled on the Korean national attire. There are about 3 200 basic movements, and 1 O degrees and 9 levels for practitioners.

The International Taekwon-Do Federation embraces about 30 millions of practitioners. Taekwon-Do games take place, divided into patterns, sparring, power show and special technique. Korea, the native place of Taekwon-Do, invented varied forms of Taekwon-Do exercises, helping improve the physical fitness of the working people.

The Korean-style hip-saddle roofed building of the Taekwon-Do Holy House recently built in Pyongyang is a comprehensive centre for propagation of Taekwon-Do. Covering a total floor space of more than ten thousand sq m, it has a history hall, a knowledge learning space, training hall, international conference hall and service facilities.