Kim Il Sung Stadium

It opened in 1926, under Japanese colonial rule, as Girimri Stadium , and through the decades that followed it took the football of the period — Pyongyang FC, Kyungsung FC — until the Korean War left it in ruins. It was here, in October 1945, that Kim Il Sung delivered his first victory speech; the renaming in his honour followed much later, in 1982, by which time the rebuilt stadium had been open for thirteen years.

For decades the football was only part of what the place did. The Mass Games were staged here until the 1990s, and the Pyongyang Marathon still starts and finishes on the running track.

The fixtures that filled it were usually against one opponent. A 1986 World Cup qualifier against Japan drew 52,500 . Japan came back for a qualifier in 2011 and lost 1-0. The 2016 redevelopment turned the terracing into seats and brought the official figure down from around 70,000, and it was in that configuration, in 2019, that 4.25 Sports Club beat Hanoi FC in the second leg of the AFC Cup final.

It remains the home ground of the North Korea men's and women's national teams and of three Pyongyang clubs — Pyongyang City, Kigwancha and 4.25. The stadium is run by the state and has no site of its own; visitors reach it through tour operators.