North Korea: Juche Tower

This is tallest stone tower on the world rising a whopping 170m/560ft on the bank of the Taedong River in the heart of Pyongyang. Juche is the name of the ideology of the Korean socialism – basically meaning “self-reliance”. Juche is based on kimilsungism and kimjongilism (in case you doubted…). The tower is built out of 25,550 blocks- one for each day of Kim Il Sung’s life. The tower is reminiscent of the Washington Memorial in DC and is just about 2 feet taller (clearly not by accident). At the entrance to the tower are various plaques from foreign organizations and groups who studies the Juche idea. Then you ride an elevator to the observation platform below the torch for super panoramic views of Pyongyang. At the bottom of the tower stands another Soviet-style statue of three people – worker with a hammer, peasant with a sickle, and an intellectual with a calligraphy paint brush.
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