The first post-war plans for Pyongyang included many "socialist" elements common to cities in Eastern Europe, and the city's earliest building styles were heavily influenced by European architecture. As Kim Il Sung consolidated power amidst a turbulent international environment and his Juche philosophy gained prominence, Pyongyang's architecture and public spaces underwent many changes, eventually obscuring the city's roots. Read part one here.

In 1962, Kim initiated a precipitous rhetorical shift toward his Juche ideology in the face of worsening relations with Russia and domestic political instability. However, it was not until 1967, shortly after the onset of the Cultural Revolution in China compelled Kim to turn back to the Soviet Union, that the term was adopted as official state ideology. In 1972, the DPRK's position in the international system became even more precarious as Sino-U.S. rapprochement began; amid a deepening cult of personality around Kim, his title changed from prime minister to president, and numerous monuments to him appeared in PyongyangThe year 1972 cannot be understated in examination of the history of Kim Il Sung’s influence on the DPRK or public space in Pyongyang. It was then that Kim’s figure raised its eternal gaze over Pyongyang in the form of the Mansudae Grand Monument, located not far from the Chollima monument to the south of Moran Hill. At 20 meters tall, it is one of the largest statues ever constructed in likeness of a national leader; it towers over the people who bow before it, as well as a mosaic of Mount Paektu, once the location of the headquarters of Kim’s guerrilla troupe, at its back.