On December 31, Juche 34 (1945), when the whole country was overflowing with the excitement and joy of the liberation, a watch-night bell sweetly tolled over the night sky of Pyongyang.

   Watch-night bell is a bell ringing at midnight of the last day of the year to see the old year out and the New Year in.

   From the old times in Pyongyang, the Pyongyang Bell had tolled every year to inform the Pyongyangites of the New Year.

   The Pyongyang Bell, which was 3.1m high, 1.6m wide and 12t 914kg heavy, had been destroyed due to fire and was founded again for around 4 months from June to September 1726. It was regarded as a pride of Pyongyang for its beautiful shape and solemn sound.

   It was told that the sound of the Pyongyang Bell was so loud to resound over 40km away. When the bell rang, Pyongyangites preparing for the holiday at every house with lights on would put on their best clothes and hold memorial services for ancestors. Then the whole family would sit together and play various folk games like yut-game to greet the morning of the New Year’s Day.

   But the Pyongyang Bell which gave people special emotion and hope kept silence for a long time after the Japanese imperialists occupied Korea.

   The tolling of the Pyongyang Bell that Pyongyangites had so eagerly wanted to hear at the first watch night after the liberation was due to the benevolent love of President Kim Il Sung towards people.

   On the morning of December 31, Juche 34 (1945) when the whole country was full of the joy of the long-cherished liberation, the President gave a phone call to a senior official of Pyongyang City in order to know the preparations for the New Year’s Day and suddenly asked if it was possible to ring the Pyongyang Bell.

   The official was surprised at his unexpected question and couldn’t give an immediate answer.

   The President waited for a while as if he read the official’s mind and said that since it was the first New Year which our people greeted in the land liberated from the Japanese colony, we should toll the bell that day so that all the people could celebrate the New Year’s Day joyfully and meaningfully. He continued that the Pyongyang Bell kept silence during the Japanese occupation but now should make its sound.

   Therefore, at midnight of the day the Pyongyang Bell broke its long silence and reverberated far and wide, adding excitement and joy of liberation to the people.

   Hearing the sound of the bell traveling over the city, the Pyongyangites shouted hurrah again and again inwardly in deep gratitude for the General Kim Il Sung who had recovered the lost country from Japan and also revived the sound of watch-night bell, and made full determination to take active part in the building of a new democratic Korea.