Google Earth is offering some new imagery of the DPRK so I wanted to point out a few of the new locations we can identify. The Pyongyang imagery is dated 2011-3-15. The east-coast imagery is dated 2011-5-14.
1. Solar Equipment Center (태양열설비쎈)
(Google Earth Coordinates: 39.014504°, 125.662840° , Google Maps, Wikimapia)
Kim Jong-il visited this facility on October 9, 2011. It produces solar water heaters (KCNA).
2. Kumkop (gold cup) Combined Foodstuff Factory (금컵체육인종합식료공장)
(Google Earth Coordinates: 39.009592°, 125.671213°, Google Maps, Wikimapia)
According to KCNA:
The factory produces rice cake, bread, confectionary, processed meat and drinks. It also has welfare facilities for its employees.
The drinks, including carbonated water and nutritious water, are made with natural medicinal materials good for recovery from fatigue and promotion of health.
3. New Taekwando Center construction:
(Google Earth Coordinates: 39.016453°, 125.681939°, Google Maps, Wikimapia)
This facility is due to be completed in July. I am not sure what it offers that the other Taekwando Center located right next door doesn’t have.
4. Something new at the old baseball stadium:
(Google Earth Coordinates: 39.008113°, 125.679196°, Google Maps, Wikimapia)
5. Wonsan – Hamhung Road (Partial map):
(Google Earth Coordinates: 39.421286°, 127.272296°, Google Maps, Wikimapia)
Read more about this road here.
6. And not really new, but Kim Jong-il recently visited the wind power farm of KPA Air Force Unit 1016–so I thought I would post it:
This facility is located in Kwail County (과일군) at 38.442086°, 124.939944°. I have also marked it on Wikimapia and Google Maps. According to KCNA:
[Kim Jong-il] toured a wind power plant built by the unit. After being briefed on the plant, he went round its inside and outside to learn about its construction and output of electricity.
Very pleased to hear that servicepersons of the unit successfully completed the plant with high output capacity in cooperation with Kim Chaek University of Technology and scientific institutions, he gave a high appreciation of their merit.
I am relaxed to hear that pilots and servicepersons rejoice at the plant as they can freely use enough electricity for combat preparations while cooking and heating with it, he said.
Being told that the plant freed the unit from the shortage of electricity and some of excessive power is supplied even to a bathing resort in the unit’s stationary area, he said with high appreciation that the People’s Army has done good things for the people.
After his inspection, Kim Jong Il gave the accompanying commanding officials and staff members of the KPA Supreme Command precious teachings needed to further strengthen the KPA into an invincible revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu and thus defend the socialist motherland as firm as a rock.
Just east of this facility is an air force base, so it is reasonable to assume that this is the home of KPA Air Force Unit 1016:
This wind power farm is not the KPA Air Force’s only or even largest experiment with wind power. Below is a Google Earth image of a facility in Ongjin County:
This facility is located in Google Earth here: 37.941508°, 125.409778°. I have also tagged it on Wikimpaia and Google Maps. It contains four wind turbines on two different sites (as of 2010-7-4).
I have uploaded a short clip to You Tube that is taken from North Korean television. It shows a romanticized account of the installation of these specific wind power turbines. You can see the clip here.
