A tale of two palaces

          In London in the centre of the city not far from Downing St and parliament  stands Buckingham palace the residence of the head of state of the UK(one of several) , it has a floor area of 77,000 square metres with 770 rooms . It costs about £5 million to run apparently.
                             In the centre of Pyongyang,  not far from Kim Il Sung Square in one direction and the Mansudae Hall Assembly Hall which houses the Supreme People's Assemby of the DPRK, stands the Pyongyang School Children’s Palace which was opened on the 30th of September 1963. It is one of several children's palaces in the DPRK . It has a floor space of 50,000 square metres . It has more than 200 study and hobby rooms of different fields, including natural science, literature and arts and sports. There are also a 1,100-seat theatre, a gymnasium accommodating 500 persons at one time, a field practice ground and a library with hundreds of thousands of books. The palace was built under the guidance of the great leader President Kim Il Sung. Originally the designers had planned  to construct the palace with a much smaller floor area but President Kim Il Sung insisted that it be built on a grand scale so as to give the best to the children whom he regarded as the little kings of the country.
                                                      On my visits to the DPRK I often passed by the Schoolchildren's  palace which is on a small hill. I could not help thinking about the centre of London and the contrast between the two cities and the two systems. Each time I visit Pyongyang  I feel like I am in a dream as it is so different to the capitalist society that I used to .
                                                            The existence of the Children’s Palace right in  the centre of Pyongyang   shows the contrast between the people-centred socialist system of Korea and the anti-popular capitalist system. In addition to the Schoolchildren's Palace  other educational, cultural and leisure facilities such as the Grand People's Study House , Mansudae Art Theatre and many others as well the  recently constructed Changjon Street which is inhabited by ordinary Korean working people . In London you will find in the central part in addition to the residence of the Queen , numerous large buildings that are the headquarters of big corporations and banks as well as shops for the rich and some luxury flats flats which sell on the market for up to £3 million , equivalent to 120 years salary for the average worker in the UK.
                            The difference between the two cities demonstrates the striking
superiority of the Juche-based people centred socialist system of the DPRK !.

Dermot Hudson
ASSPUK
JISGE