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Let them pLay goLf, says Jo ng-un Golf, once considered a sport exclusively for North Korea’s uber-elite, is becoming increasingly popular as a leisure activity under the reign of young ruler Kim Jong- un. A miniature golf course at the Nungra People’s Amusement Park in Pyongyang was recently featured on a TV program aired by the North’s state-run Korean Central Television. On the show, titled “One Fine Sunday,” a 10-minute segment details the origins of the game and its rules. “Golf is a leisure activity loved by many players worldwide,” a professional in - structor announces on the program. The Nungra People’s Amusement Park in the North’s capital city was Kim Jong-un’s first ambitious development project. The young leader attended the amusement park’s opening ceremony in July 2012, six months after he inherited his role as head of the regime. Kim has largely promoted sports con- sidered luxurious to the people of the impoverished North. Skiing and horse- back riding, as well as golf, have also been endorsed as leisure activities for ordinary people in the Communist nation. Under the young leader, the North con- verted a military horse-riding club into a public facility, while Masikryong Ski Re- sort was completed at the end of last year. During the reign of Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un’s father, golf was considered a sport limited to Pyongyang’s few elite and wealthy members of pro-North organi - zation the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. The nation’s first country club with an 18-hole course was completed in the late 1980s. Pyongyang Golf Club, which is located about 40 kilometers away from the capi- tal city, occupies a space measuring about 1.2 square kilometers next to scenic Thae- song Lake. It was finished in April 1987 to commemorate the 75th birthday of the North’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and was built with the donations of businessmen who were members of the pro-North gen - eral association. The country club has about 120 workers, including 30 caddies. Students from Kim Il Sung University and Pyongyang Uni- versity of Foreign Studies once served as caddies, but mos t of them are now trained professionals. Some South Koreans have had a rare op- portunity to play a round at Pyongyang Golf Club. Saenuri Party Representative Chung Mong-joon, who visited the North in November 1999 as head of the Korea Football Association, played a game of golf at the facility. He reportedly paid $95 for the round, including the rental fee for a set of golf clubs produced in Japan in the 1970s. The North reportedly has other country clubs — one at a retreat that belonged to Kim Il-sung near Mount Myohyang and another in the Yongsong District of Pyong - yang. Unfortunately, little is known about either of them. A nine-hole golf course once existed next to the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang, but it was demolished to make way for a ma- jor development project in the area. None of the North’s past and present rulers have been featured in state me- dia playing golf, but Pyongyang has not missed the opportunity to use the sport to boost the Kim family’s personality cult. all stories are culled with consent from Korea Joongang Daily’s website and edited by groove Korea for length and clarity. the opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of groove Korea. — ed. n a t i o n a L n e w swith December 2014 / www.koreajoongangdaily.com The Korean who bought Napoleon Bon- aparte’s iconic bicorn hat from Monaco’s royal family for 1.9 million euros last month was revealed to be Kim Hong-kuk, chair- man of food industry giant Harim Group. “I have always admired Napoleon Bonapar- te’s challenging spirit of ‘Nothing is impos- sible,’” Kim said in a statement released by by Harim, Korea’s largest poultry producer. “With the intent of once more awakening my entrepreneurial spirit, I purchased Napole- on I’s hat at auction.” A Harim manager representing Kim suc- cessfully bid on the French emperor’s black felt and beaver fur hat during a two-day auction in Fontainebleau, near Paris. The auction house listed the hat with an expected selling price of around 400,000 euros. As experts anticipated, it fetched a higher price of 1.9 million euros, interna - tional media reported. “Rather than keeping the hat myself, I am thinking of installing it where other people can share Napoleon’s spirit of taking on challenges and being a pioneer,” Kim said. The black two-pointed hat, decorated with a tricolor rosette, was apparently worn by Napoleon at the Battle of Marengo in Italy in 1800, a fight against the Austrians, before he declared himself emperor in 1804. Napoleon wore the bicorn sideways, rath- er than with the two points positioned front to back as the fashion of the time dictated. This made him easier to spot in battle, said the French auction house that sold the hat, Osenat. It is one of the em peror’s 19 remaining bi - corn hats out of the estimated 120 he wore in his lifetime. Thus, the military headpiece was consid - ered the star attraction amongst hundreds of other pieces of Napoleon memorabilia auctioned off at the Chateau de Fontaineb- leau, historically significant as the location where Napoleon abdicated in 1814. Through a statement, Harim Group said, “Chairman Kim, who in his youth raised 10 chicks that became the foundation of Harim Group, now with annual sales of 4.8 trillion won, has always promoted ‘Escaping the safety zone’ and a pioneering spirit while not settling for the status quo.” ChiCKen King buys napoLeon’s ha t