Kim Jong Un (1) watches a concert by the U’nhasu Orchestra at the People’s Theater in Pyongyang. Those watching the concert with him include: Chief of the Military Security Command Col. Gen. Jo Kyong Chol (2), Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Gen. Kim Kyong Sik (3), Director of the KPA General Political Department VMar Choe Ryong Hae (4), Gen. Kim Yong Chol (5) and Deputy Director of the KWP Organization Guidance Department Hwang Pyong So (6) (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)
DPRK state media reported on 3 May (Friday) that Kim Jong Un (Kim Cho’ng-u’n) watched an U’nhasu Orchestra concert at the People’s Theater in central Pyongyang. KJU’s last observed public appearance was his attendance at a May Day (International Labor Day) sports competition of public health workers. Attending the concert, also given to celebrate May Day, were: VMar Choe Ryong Hae, Gen. Kim Kyok Sik, Hwang Pyong So, Kang Phil Hun, Lt. Gen. Ryom Chol Song, Col. Gen. Jo Kyong Chol, Gen. Kim Yong Chol, Lt. Gen. Pak Jong Chon, Col. Gen. Jon Chang Bok, along with “Pyongyangites and local people of different social strata staying the capital city.”
Based on DPRK state media reporting, Kim Jong Un’s attendance was impromptu. According to KCNA when he arrived at the venue, “the audience, who had been waiting for the start of the concert, broke into the rousing cheers of “hurrah” with tears of emotion when Kim Jong Un appeared in the auditorium unexpectedly.” The concert began with the DPRK’s national anthem. Included among the tunes performed were “mixed chorus ‘May, Month of Victory’, male solo ‘Ch’o'llima Gallops Forward’, female solo ‘For Another Great Surge under the Uplifted Banner of Self-reliance’ and orchestra ‘We Will Never Forget” and “orchestra and mixed chorus ‘The Dear Home in My Native Village’ and female solo and mixed chorus ‘Peace Is Guaranteed by Our Arms.’”
May Day concert by the U’nhasu Orchestra at the People’s Theater in Pyongyang (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)
Kim Jong Un (1) and senior officials of the Korean People’s Army watche a May Day-themed concert by the U’nhasu Orchestra at the People’s Theater in Pyongyang (Photo: Rodong Sinmun)
DPRK athletes who received gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics and employees of the Pyongyang Children’s Foodstuffs Factory performed “What Did We Cherish Deep in Our Hearts” and “We Will Never Forget.” According to KCNA “the performers sang high praises of the glorious history of the struggle in which the Korean people worked world-startling miracles from debris after the war and paved a wide avenue for prosperity despite difficulties and trials under the wise leadership of the peerlessly great men and a bright future of the great Mt. Paektu nation advancing under the line of simultaneously pushing forward the economic construction and the building of nuclear force.” The concert ended with “mixed chorus ‘The Leader and the General are Together” encore performances were given of “The Dear Home in My Native Village” and “Peace is Guaranteed by Our Arms,” at Kim Jong Un’s request.
Kim Jong Un “warmly congratulated the artistes, expressing great satisfaction over their splendid performance which is distinct in its ideological and thematic content and style and represents the ardent aspiration and desire, high awareness and determination of the Korean people.” KJU also described the U’nhasu Orchestra as “as outpost and reliable agitator on the ideological front of the WPK (Workers’ Party of Korea; KWP).” According to KCNA, Kim Jong Un also said:
The U’nhasu concert marking May Day instills the spirit of defending the socialist country, the will to annihilate the enemies, faith in victory and optimism into the army and people with its might as powerful as a nuclear bomb, he noted, adding it is an excellent concert electrifying the audience and fully reflecting the revolutionary stand and principle of the DPRK.
Noting “The Dear Home in My Native Village”, a wartime song strong in philosophical nature and full of patriotism, was excellently represented in the spirit of the era, he said the service personnel and people of the DPRK would turn out in a decisive battle, singing such wartime songs once the second June 25 war breaks out on this land.
“Peace Is Guaranteed by Our Arms” is a very good song which one wishes to listen again and again, he said, adding: This song fully reflects our principled stand toward the enemies who haven’t dropped their wicked design to stifle our socialist country.
Thanks to such revolutionary and militant songs as “The Dear Home in My Native Village” and “Peace Is Guaranteed by Our Arms”, our service personnel and people will win only victory in their final decisive battle against the enemies, he stressed.
He expressed his expectation and belief that the creators and artistes of the orchestra would powerfully encourage the army and people through creation of arts and performing activities.
Filed under: 2013 Strategic Rhetoric, Central Committee, Central Military Committee, Choe Ryong Hae, Col. Gen. Jon Chang Bok, colonel general, corps command, corps commanders, Culture Section (bureau), Events Management Section, Gen. Kim Kyok Sik, Gen. Kim Yong Chol, gsd, Guard Command, Hwang Pyong So, Jo Kyong Chol, Kim Chong-un inspections, Kim Family, Kim Jong Un Visits, Kim Jong-un, KJI Personal Secretariat, Korean People's Army (KPA), Korean Workers' Party (KWP), KPA General Political Bureau, KPA General Political Department, KPA General Staff, KPA supernumerary organizations, Lt. Gen. Pak Jong Chon, Lt. Gen. Ryom Chol Song, military security command [msc], Ministry of Culture, Ministry of State Security, Ministry of the People's Armed Forces (MPAF), MPAF GPB, National Defense Commission (NDC), NDC Administration Department, North Korean press, Organization and Guidance Department, Political Bureau, Propaganda and Agitation Department, Reconnaissance Bureau, Secretariat, State Security Department, Unhasu Orchestra
