A couple of quick videos from some of the performances I attended in Pyongyang
Circus
The circus is entirely acrobatics-based, so no animals are involved. The opening segment does reference the Party, but the remainder is just focused on acrobatic performance. The hammer, sickle & brush are actually the Party Foundation Monument in Pyongyang and are the symbol of the North Korean Workers’ Party. It’s the equivalent of the hammer and sickle elsewhere. That lake surrounded by snow-capped peaks is the Paektu Mountain – a mountain sacred to Koreans and a central element of the North Korean mythos. Kim Jong Il is also claimed to have been born there.
School Children’s Palace
That’s what they call a place where the kids practice their extracurriculars after school. The entire show (about an hour long) was not as overtly political as the two segments below. Not visually, at least. I can’t really comment on the lyrics.
From what I gathered, those sheets of paper that the audience applauds show writing by either Kim Jong Un or one of his predecessors. The small house shown during the second song is the birthplace of Kim Il Sung
The closing segment. Obviously a Kim Jong Un paean.
