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Thanks to the far-reaching plan and energetic leadership of the Central Committee of the great Workers’ Party of Korea, the Ice Rink on the picturesque bank of the Pothong River has been successfully renovated amid the changing appearance of Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK, into a world-class ideal city where socialist civilization is in full bloom.
The Ice Rink, which wrote its proud history of 40-odd years since it was built as a base for the development of winter sports games of the country and the physical training of working people and youth and children, has been turned into a multi-functional sports and cultural complex, where indoor sports games and colourful art performances can be held as required by the new era aspiring after civilization and prosperity along with the great golden age of construction.
Its opening ceremony took place on August 14 on the occasion of the significant 80th anniversary of national liberation.
Present there were Pak Thae Song, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and premier of the DPRK Cabinet, Kim Tok Hun, secretary of the WPK Central Committee and chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee, Kim Jong Gwan, vice-premier of the Cabinet, Ri Myong Guk, minister of Finance who doubles as the chairman of the Skating Association, other officials concerned, builders who participated in the project, officials of ministries and national agencies, sportspersons, officials and employees of the Ice Rink and Pyongyang citizens.
Kim Tok Hun made an opening address.
The speaker said:
The Ice Rink has been completely renovated into a sports centre with the latest interior facilities and a multi-functional peculiar cultural life base, which is harmonized with the character of the capital city and modern aesthetic sense. It is another outcome of the new era of civilization and rejuvenation where everyone is advancing and everything is developing.
The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, who makes sure that all the structures are built as creations representing the aspiration and ideal of the current generation and a new era of socialist cultural development, clearly indicated the orientation and ways for turning the Ice Rink into a centre for sports and cultural life of new domain and form and energetically led to renovate it on a world level.
The Ice Rink is a monument associated with the noble will of Kim Jong Un to glorify it as a wealth for sportspersons and the rising generations forever, both in the present and in the future. Herein lies the genuine position and absolute height of the Ice Rink which can never be measured by any advanced nature or civilization.
Underscoring the need to make changes in the work of improving the material and technical foundations of the sports sector in the era of overall development, the speaker expressed belief that the renovated sports and cultural complex would demonstrate the prosperity and progress of the state and make the life more beautiful, pleasant and colourful.
A figure skating demonstration was given at the ceremony.
The performers showed their excellent ice-skating skills with elegant and soft rhythms, skilful rotation and jumping in colourful numbers such as group performance and ice dancing.
The audience gave applause to the performers who unfolded an optimistic ecstasy on the rink to the tune of dynamic, nimble and lyrical melodies.
The figure skating demonstration, which artistically showed the happy life of the people enjoying the new civilization under the care of the great Party and the brighter future, decorated the opening ceremony.