Kumsusan Palace of the Sun (Pyongyang)

Korea (North) / Pyongyang / Pyongyang
 memorial, mausoleum, interesting place, 1976_construction
When DPRK President Kim II Sung was alive, this was his official head of state residence from 1976-77 onward. When he passed away in 1994, it became his mausoleum and the Temple of the Juche Idea.

The palace was built in 1976 as the Kumsusan Assembly Hall and served as Kim Il-sung's official residence. Following the elder Kim's death in 1994, Kim Jong-il had the building renovated and transformed into his father's mausoleum. It is believed that the conversion cost at least $100 million. Some sources put the figure as high as $900 million. Inside the palace, Kim Il-sung's embalmed body lies inside a clear glass sarcophagus. His head rests on a Korean-style pillow and he is covered by the flag of the Workers' Party of Korea. Kim Jong-il is now on display in a room close to his father's remains and positioned in a very similar way.
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Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumsusan_Palace_of_the_Sun
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Coordinates:   39°3'47"N   125°47'18"E

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  • Please stop the sabotage of this summary
  • First occupied in 1976, the 4-story Kumsusan was originally the Kumsusan Assembly Hall, and was Kim Il Sung's official residence. One year after Kim's 1994 death the Hall's windows had been bricked over and the giant building became a giant mausoleum, housing Kim's embalmed body in a glass coffin awaiting the bows and lamentations of DPRK citizens. Foreigners are sometimes invited to visit. The former front lawn is now a 100,000 square meter plaza, with a half-mile long moving sidewalk to convey mourners to Kim's flag-draped body. Also on the way in to Kim's corpse on the top floor forced air and shoe washes protect the building and its contents from dust and dirt.