Traditional Kiteflying in the DPRK

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Kiteflying is one of the folk games enjoyed by Korean children from olden times. Flying paper kite high up into the sky on the current of wind is a folk game with a long history. The history book "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" writes that kite was used in battlefield to destroy the enemy and another book "History of Koryo Dynasty" also has a record on kite. Kite is diverse in kind and playing method and tricks.

Ordinary traditional kite is somewhat rectangular or ray-shaped. It is said that kites were made as large as gate at seaside villages with strong wind, and smaller in the inlands with comparatively light wind. The kites have two to three tails. The children play various kiteflying games including high flying, kite tricks and kite fighting.

High flying is the most ordinary game. The children compete to send the kite higher than others, taking advantage of the current of wind. The kite fighting is a game to decide whose string is strongest by crossing and cutting the string of other´s kite. In the kite tricks the competitors pull or let loose the strings of kites to send the kites suddenly up and down or to the left or to the right.

Usually kiteflying is played in winter. Especially so many children fly kites on the Lunar New Year´s Day that it can be called a kiteflying holiday. Kiteflying is a very good game to develop the talents and wisdom of children and build up their bodies. Today, too, kiteflying is active amid great interest of the children in keeping with the aesthetic sense and emotion of the times.