Monday, June 30, 2008

My 2nd North Korea DPRK Card




It was another one postcard day at the mailbox again today. That's ok though as that one card sometimes turns out to be a gem as it did today. Today's card was from North Korea DPRK. It was sent to me by Stephan J of Germany who recently toured there. The card is postmarked Pyongyang on June 21 and arrived in my mailbox today, June 30. That's not bad service , 9 days in total. I hate to say this , but it often takes that long to mail a letter across Canada.
The card shows The Tower of the Juche Idea. The Juche Tower is a monument in Pyongyang, North Korea. Completed in 1982, it is on the eastern bank of the River Taedong, directly opposite Kim Il Sung Square. It was built to commemorate Kim Il Sung's 70th birthday. Many say it was designed by Kim Jong-il.
The 170 metre tower contains 25,550 blocks , one for each day of Kim Il Sung's life. The tower is named after the principle of Juche, developed by Kim Il Sung as a blend of autarky, self-reliance, isolationism, Korean traditionalism and Marxism-Leninism. Even though Pyongyang, the capital , often experiences power shortages; the Juche Tower is always brightly lit to preserve symbolic strength.

Stephan used 3 stamps on the card. Two are definitives from a set of 12 issued in 2002. The other is a commemorative from 2003 , commemorating Atomic Independence.

That is today's update. Tomorrow is a special day and no it's not my birthday, we already did that last week. Tune in tomorrow and see what is on the go.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Glenn,

I'm happy my card made it. I have to apologise for the rather boring motif. Time didn't permit to go to the stamp-shop where they sell the interesting ones, so I had to buy a card (at the last minute before departure) at the airport and ask one of our guides to mail it for me. Thanks Mrs. Kim ;-)

If you'd like to see some pictures from the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fljckr/sets/72157605765183184/

cheers,

-Stephan

Anonymous said...

Glad that you got your 2nd DPRK postcard. I got three postcards from three travellers but all are of Juche Tower - not complaining. SLLiew