View on the Taedong River (Pyongyang, North Korea) ; Bords du fleuve Taedong (Pyongyang, Corée du Nord)

The photo was taken during a fieldwork mission organized by Valérie Gelézeau from October 11 to 22, 2013 in Pyongyang with a team from the EHESS Centre for Korean Studies (CKS). The photo shows the riverside promenade below the Juche Idea Monument in Taedong district (Taedong-kuyŏk), left bank.In the background, beyond the line of lone fishermen watching their lines, the Okryu Bridge (Ongnyu-gyo), a concrete-beam road bridge rebuilt in 1959-1960 (over an earlier bridge dating from the 1930s) crosses the river. This bridge connects Tongdaewon Avenue (Tongdaewŏn kŏri), on the right bank, to Mansudae Avenue (Mansudae kŏri), on the left bank, north of Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang's central district (Chung kuyŏk), where the towers of the Changjon district (Ch'angjŏn kŏri) stand. Construction of this 13-building, 2,800-home complex began in 2008, when leader Kim Jong Il was still in power and working to beautify North Korea's capital to celebrate 2012, the centenary of the birth of the founding leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.The complex was inaugurated in 2012, after Kim Jong Un came to power following the death of his father Kim Jong Il (in December 2011). Despite continuing economic difficulties in 2020 (when the image was submitted), this project is representative of the major urban renewal projects undertaken from the mid-2000s onwards, following the period of famine that shook the country (1995-early 2000s). In the background, behind the bridge, we see the wooded hills of Moranbong, one of Pyongyang's green lungs. The Pyongyang Broadcasting Tower (1967) can be seen in Kaeson Park.Beyond the two fishing rods, in the background, we can make out a high bar that is probably one of the buildings of Kim Il Sung University, north of the city center.NB. The transcription of proper nouns follows the local transcription (from DPRK). Terms in brackets follow the McCune-Reischauer rules widely practiced in the field of international Korean studies. ; La photo a été prise lors d'une mission réalisée du ...