The contest brings together more than 10,000 members of school sports groups who proved successful at city, county and provincial preliminaries. They will compete in 19 events including Taekwon-Do, ssirum (Korean wrestling), basketball, swimming and skiing.

Present at the opening ceremony were Choe Hwi, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea who is chairman of the National Sports Guidance Committee, Kim Kyong Ho, chairman of the Korean Taekwon-Do Committee, and other officials concerned and officials of the youth league and school youth and children.