News

Jo Oct 4, 2022

Many countries and nations in the world have wrestling, one of strength events. However, hardly any of them are comparable with Korean wrestling, which has such a long history and tradition, a strong national character and a unique form and way of playing, and is imbued with rich and optimistic national sentiments.

Korean wrestling is one of the national sports events, in which two people try to take opponents down by strength and skills holding opponents’ thigh bands or waist bands. The term ssirum (Korean wrestling) came from an archaic word “hilhuda”, which meant making every effort not to be defeated. The sound “hilhum”, the noun form of “hilhuda”, changed little by little into silhum → silum → sirum → ssirum.

Created through the labour of our hard-working people to conquer the nature, ssirum became a typical event of our national sport in ancient times and entered the track of its development. Mural paintings in Koguryo tombs including Ssirum Tomb in the period of the Three Kingdoms (late 4th century) and Jangchon Tomb No.1 (mid-5th century) give a lifelike portrayal of scenes of ssirum which was very popular in those days. In the period of Koryo, too, ssirum was widely done as a popular sporting event. It was so popular that even one of the kings of the Koryo dynasty used to do ssirum with the officials at Court, far from looking after the affairs of the state. “Ssirum” painted by Kim Hong Do, a famous artist in the 18th century, shows that Korean wrestling is a popular national sport that is simple in preparation but diverse in the ways of playing, and that it can be played anywhere anytime.

Korean wrestling has three main features: diversity in the techniques by thigh bands, giving strong stamina, fighting spirit and herculean strength, and a popularized event that can be played without any restrictions on a place, time and players.

Thanks to the warm love of Chairman Kim Jong Il, the “Grand Bull Prize” National Ssirum Contest, unprecedented in the history of Korean ssirum, started on picturesque Moran Hill in Juche 91(2002), as required by the times and the desire of our people. It presented a fine scene where the winner was awarded a grand bull and a gold bell.

Today, under the warm care of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, the “Grand Bull Prize” National Ssirum Contest has been held in a splendid way on picturesque Rungna Islet. It has been making great contributions to bringing the national sentiments and fragrance into full bloom among the people across the country.

Im Sung Bin, section head at the Academy of Social Sciences