One May day in 2012, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un visited the Changjon Haemaji Restaurant whose construction was proceeding at the final stage.
Guided into the lobby, he looked up at the ceiling and commented that the indirect illuminations in a circular shape were excellent.
His comment took the officials by surprise, since even the specialists with rich experience argued that such lighting did not suit the Korean style.
He continued to say:
In the past circular indirect lighting was seldom used in decorating the interior of an architectural building, so some people may claim that it is a European-style decoration. It does, beyond doubt, suit the Korean style. We should give our people a clear understanding of the fact that our country’s architecture has made a leap forward. Whatever our people have created in keeping with their ideological feelings and aesthetic tastes suits the Korean style.
This was a concise definition of the Korean style.
Among officials there was a tendency to rest content with the construction of numerous monumental edifices and estimate the reality by outdated yardsticks without taking into account the ever-rising standards and the people’s growing aesthetic and emotional requirements.
The Korean style, as defined by Kim Jong Un, represented the Korean people’s ambition to beat the world, their aesthetic tastes and creative attitude, and their spirit of self-development first.
While pondering on the new definition given by Kim Jong Un, the officials realized once again that they could not keep step with the developing reality if they did not rid themselves of their wrong ideological viewpoint and outmoded work style.