N. Korea opens Arirang festival

(ATTN: UPDATES with state TV footage, details; CHANGES duration of festival with new
report in para 4)
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Tuesday that its Arirang Festival,
the world's largest gymnastics show mobilizing about 100,000 people, has opened
in Pyongyang, drawing local and foreign audiences.

North Korea has intermittently held the extravaganza, named after Korea's famous
folk song, since 2002, with colorful synchronized acrobatics, gymnastics, dances
and flip-card mosaic animations.
State media said this year's new additions spotlight the country's ongoing
campaign to build a "strong, prosperous and powerful nation" by 2012, the 100th
anniversary of the birth of its late founder, Kim Il-sung. Footage from the
Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station showed numerous people forming a "150-day
Battle" slogan with flip cards. The 150-day battle is a labor drive that North
Korea launched in late April to intensify industrial production over the span of
150 days.
The reports said the curtains were raised for the 80-minute show at May Day
Stadium on Monday night. It will be staged daily, except on Sundays, until
mid-October, they said.
The stadium was packed with soldiers and workers, as well as foreign diplomats,
international agency representatives, tourists and Koreans who live abroad, they
said. The Arirang festival is a tourist attraction for outsiders, but it also
serves as a powerful domestic propaganda tool to boost socialist patriotism.
North Korea skipped the show in 2003, 2004 and 2006 without giving reasons. Seoul
officials say the country was hit hard by floods from summer monsoons in some of
those years.
The country appears to have had no severe floods so far this year, they say.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)