The temple was originally built in 392 during the reign of King Kwanggaetho, the 24th ruler of the Koguryo Kingdom. It was later restored in 1727 during the feudal Joson dynasty.

Kwangbop Temple was destroyed by US bombing during the Korean War, but it was reconstructed in 1990 in its original form.

It is a representative example of architecture from the Koguryo period. There are the Haethal Gate, the gate of the temple, five-storied octagonal pagoda and the main hall where Buddhist priests sit in meditation east and west on both sides of its central axis.

The main hall, painted red and blue, features a two-storied hip-saddle roof.

Inside the hall are three Buddhist statues, including a statue of Shakyamuni, as well as a painting of Buddha.

In the centre of the temple yard there is a five-storied octagonal pagoda, noted for its elegant appearance and harmonious balance with the surrounding buildings.

As a valuable cultural heritage site that reflects the architectural achievements and long cultural traditions of the Korean people, the temple is carefully preserved and maintained as a relic of national treasure.

In February 1991, President Kim Il Sung visited the temple and expressed satisfaction that it had been successfully reconstructed in accordance with historical principles.

In later years, a resting area was created around the temple, allowing visitors to relax and enjoy the surroundings.

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The unusual ties between President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and former President Sukarno of Indonesia are well known around the world.

Objectively, a striking contrast existed between the two leaders. Kim Il Sung was a thoroughgoing communist and atheist while Sukarno was a dyed-in-the-wool nationalist and faithful religionist. Their age gap was more than ten years and their relations as heads of state were no more than two years long. But they were in unusually friendly relations.

There may be several factors contributing to their close ties, but the main factor was that they both aspired to independence and opposed imperialism and dominationism. This is well testified to by the fact that Sukarno advocated self-reliance and self-supporting economy.

During his visit to the DPRK in November 1964 he came to have a good understanding of self-reliance and self-supporting economy and expressed his deep sympathy for them. That’s why in April 1965 he invited Kim Il Sung who was on a visit to his country to a session of the Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly of Indonesia held in Bandung. At the meeting he delivered a political speech in which he stressed the need to switch over to the road of economic independence and hold aloft the banner of self-reliance to that end. He declared that the esteemed Comrade Kim Il Sung who created the famous idea of self-reliance and successfully built a self-supporting economy with bold determination was present at the meeting, and repeated the word Juche denoting the Juche idea four times in Korean. He continued to say proudly that the switchover he had just mentioned referred to strengthening Juche orientation in Indonesia.

He was probably the first foreign state leader who expressed in Korean his admiration for the Juche idea authored by Kim Il Sung and on an official occasion at that. He was sure that when his country with rich natural resources relied on its own efforts in the style of the DPRK, it would surely achieve genuine independence, freed from the neocolonialist yoke of imperialists. Kim Il Sung expressed his active support to Sukarno’s independent and peace-loving stance. It is therefore no accidental that Sukarno definitely made public his determination to turn his country from the dependent economy to a self-supporting economy.

Sukarno conferred the highest order of Indonesia on Kim Il Sung as a token of his respect for the latter who created and applied the Juche idea.

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April 15, 2026 is the 114th birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung.

Regarding “The people are my god” as his motto, he devoted his all throughout his life for the wellbeing of the people.

Continuing the journey of on-site guidance, he discussed state affairs with the people to encourage them to work miracles and innovations, and lent an ear to their simple opinions to reflect their aspirations and demands in the policies of the state and the Workers’ Party of Korea and bring them into reality.

The units he gave on-site guidance at from August 1945, the year when Korea was liberated, to 1994, the year when he passed away, number over 20 600.

Under his guidance, the Koreans became an independent and heroic people, and a people-centred socialist system was built in their country.

Holding him in high esteem as the eternal leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Korean people are dynamically pushing ahead with the efforts to build theirs into a powerful socialist country true to his lifetime intentions.

Read more at Mokran Project