Pyongyang Juche Tower

About the Juche Tower

Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea, dominated by the iconic Juche Tower - a 170-meter granite obelisk topped with a 20-meter torch that glows red at night. Built in 1982 to commemorate the 70th birthday of Kim Il-sung, the tower represents the Juche ideology of national self-reliance. Standing on the banks of the Taedong River, the tower is one of the tallest monuments in the world and a defining symbol of Pyongyang's monumental socialist architecture.

Completed in April 1982 for Kim Il Sung's seventieth birthday, the Tower of the Juche Idea rises on the east bank of the Taedong River, directly across from Kim Il Sung Square, so that it anchors the central axis of the capital's monumental core. The granite shaft stands about 150 metres and is topped by an illuminated metal torch, giving a total height near 170 metres. Official accounts say it was built from 25,550 blocks, one for each day Kim Il Sung had then lived, and North Korean sources credit Kim Jong Il with its conception, a claim outside historians treat as propaganda. A bronze group of worker, farmer and intellectual stands at its base, and the tower remains a fixture of state ceremony, guided tours and city imagery.