The Olympic torch made its first-ever visit to the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) yesterday, with hundreds of thousands people in traditional Korean dresses dancing and beating drums, and little girls waving flowers and Chinese and DPRK flags along the 20-km route.
The relay began from the obelisk of the Juche Tower, which commemorates the national ideology of "self-reliance" created by the country's late founding leader Kim Il-sung.
At the start of the run, Kim Yong-nam, president of the Supreme People's Assembly, the top legislature of the DPRK, handed the torch to the first runner, Park Tu-ik.
Park, 72, scored the winner in the DPRK's 1-0 win over Italy to send his team to the World Cup soccer quarter-finals in 1966.
He said he had been running every morning to prepare for the special moment.
"I, as the first torch runner, will cherish this beautiful memory forever," Park said.
Some 400,000 Pyongyang residents cheered the 80 torchbearers along the route, which passed major landmarks of the city. They held banners which read "Cheer for Beijing, Cheer for Pyongyang, Cheer for the Olympic Games," and "China-DPRK Friendship Passed on from Generation to Generation."
The five-hour relay was completed in the afternoon with the last torchbearer, Chong Song-ok, lighting the Olympic cauldron in the Kim Il-sung Stadium.
Chong, crowned at the 1999 world athletics championships and hailed as a "Marathon Queen" by DPRK media, told Xinhua that as a former marathoner, the Olympic torch relay has a special meaning to her.
"Holding the last torch and running to the cauldron reminded me of making a final dash in the marathon," she said.
Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the DPRK, said Pyongyang is geographically the closest city to China on the torch's international journey.
"The flame brings friendship, best wishes and passion to Pyongyang," said Liu, the first of the 25 Chinese who carried the torch.
（英语点津 Helen 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Jonathan Stewart is a media and journalism expert from the United States with four years of experience as a writer and instructor. He accepted a foreign expert position with chinadaily.com.cn in June 2007 following the completion of his Master of Arts degree in International Relations and Comparative Politics.
