North Korea's Impressive And Devastating "Mass Games"

By Savannah Cox | Edited By John Kuroski

Published January 25, 2014

Updated November 9, 2023

The Arirang Festival is the interpretive storytelling of the Korean peninsula’s fight for unity after World War II. The festival’s name is taken from an allegorical song of the same name about two lovers separated by a greedy landlord, which is meant to signify the split of the ideologically opposed nations. While 2012 was the last year that the Mass Games fell under the Arirang theme, 2013 marked the 60-year anniversary of the armistice and organizers went all-out to commemorate the occasion.

Source: World Adventurer

Source: World Adventurer

80,000 gymnasts fill the floor, hyper-aware that one individual misstep could spell disaster for the entire group. Their outfits and routines often contain props and objects that only add to the impressive display of corporeal intelligence. Imagine thousands of balls bouncing in unison, hoops and ribbons mirroring one another from one group to the next, or simply bending and spinning with cumbersome musical instruments and heavy military weapons strapped to everyone’s bodies!

Source: Don Parrish

Source: SCMP

Source: Metro

Source: Don Parrish

author

Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.

editor

John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.

Cox, Savannah. "North Korea’s Impressive And Devastating “Mass Games”." AllThatsInteresting.com, January 25, 2014, https://allthatsinteresting.com/north-korea-mass-games. Accessed April 18, 2024.