UPDATE 5 (2012-8-28): Thanks to a valued reader, I have posted a marketing flyer for the Rason International Commerce and Trade Center (AKA Rason International Business Trade Center) which is currently under construction in Rajin City (though it is too new to appear on satellite imagery). According to the front page of the flyer, caucasians will live in the complex, enjoying contemporary housing furnished by Pottery Barn and Oneida.
Below I have posted the marketing flyer featuring Pottery Barn on the cover. If a reader out there can translate Chinese, I would appreciate some assistance:
I hope that one day all North Koreans have the opportunity and the means to shop at Pottery Barn, but I am fairly confident that the company has no plans to open a branch in the DPRK for the foreseeable future.
On page 5 of the flyer, an artist impression is given of what the trade center will look like. It is slightly different from the model of the complex which appeared in KCNA yesterday and which was also on display at the second annual Rason International Trade Fair:
Here is what KCNA had to say about the complex:
Int′l Commerce and Trade Center to Be Built in Rason City
Pyongyang, August 28 (KCNA) — The development of the Rason Economic and Trade Zone is in full in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Among the development projects is the Rason International Commerce and Trade Center.
The construction, jointly funded by the Rason Paekho Trading Corporation of the DPRK and a real estate development company in Qin Huangdao, China, began in April this year.
It covers an area of some 40 000 square meters, with a total floor space of 88 000 square meters.
The first-stage construction will be finished in mid-October this year to cover seven buildings for storehouses and wholesale market.
The second stage, to be completed in October next year, will include nine buildings for shops, restaurants and hotel.
The construction is now under way as scheduled.
Song Ryang Dok, manager of the Rason Paekho Trading Corporation, told KCNA that the center is one of the big development projects in the zone.
“There were cases in which North Korea allowed foreigners to invest in factories and commerce centers, but no official case of home sales has been reported,” said Im Eul-chul, a research professor at Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University. “It can be seen as (the North) making another step forward in its efforts to attract foreign investment.”
UPDATE 5 (2012-8-22): Here is a video of the investment forum that was held at the zone. It features another architectural vision for the city which differs from the previously released video:
Some 110 companies from 11 countries have booths at the four-day event, Rason’s second international trade fair, organizers told The Associated Press. Chinese companies dominate the exhibition hall.
While the big goods are parked outside, exhibitors inside are showing off everything from toys to medicine, clothes to household appliances made in countries as far as the Czech Republic and France and as close as factories in Rason. One American is selling T-shirts not far from a North Korean clothing company.
“All these products you see are made or manufactured by our company. And they now are exported to more than 13 countries around the world,” said Pak Kyong Ok, a Rason Hyesong official. “Our products are popular.”
Bob Granger, a British entrepreneur, had something else in mind: a coffee shop in Rason.
“We would like to open in this area, not in the capital, Pyongyang,” said Granger, managing partner of the Green Apple cafe in Tumen, China, as North Koreans sampled his coffee. “We’d like to be bit out in the country meeting the people.”
UPDATE 3 (2012-8-20): Here is the official KCNA video of the opening of the Rason Trade Fair:
UPDATE 2 (2012-8-20): The Exhibition has opened. According to KCNA:
Second Rason International Trade Fair Opens
Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) — The Second Rason International Trade Fair opened with due ceremony in Rason on Monday.
The participants laid a floral basket before portraits of smiling President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il in the venue and paid tribute to them.
Present there were Jo Jong Ho, chairman of the Rason City People’s Committee who is chairman of the organizing committee of the fair, officials concerned, officials in the city of Rason, scientists and technicians, representatives and exhibitors of different countries and regions, foreigners active in the Rason economic and trade zone and the consuls general of China and Russia in Chongjin.
An opening address and a congratulatory speech were made there.
The speakers referred to the fact that the fair would contribute to bringing about economic development and common prosperity of different countries of the world.
They expressed belief that the participants would conduct positive and wide-ranging dialogue and multi-faceted commercial and trade activities.
At the end of the ceremony the participants looked round electrical and electronic products, vehicles, light industry goods, medicaments and other commodities presented by more than 110 units of different countries and regions including the DPRK, China, Russia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Taipei of China.
A reception was given on the same day in connection with the inauguration of the fair.
The second Rajin-Sonbong (Rason) International Product Exhibition is scheduled to be held from August 20 to 23, 2012.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced on Aug. 2 that participants from North Korea, China, Russia, France, Switzerland, Australia, Czech Republic, Taiwan and other nations will be attending this exhibition, with electronic, machineries, light industry, and medical products on display.
The KCNA also reported the exhibition will contribute toward trade, economic, and science and technological development and enhance cooperation and exchange with neighboring countries. During this period, North Korea is also planning to hold briefing sessions for investments and visits to Rason Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for companies.
The first international product exhibition at Rason was held last year in August. The Chinese and Russian consul generals of Chongjin attended the opening ceremony with products from over 110 companies from North Korea, China, Russia, Australia, Italy, the United States, and Taiwan.
North Korea continues to expand the joint development of Rason with China, although it is also attracting investments from other countries such as Russia, Australia, and Italy.
In addition to Rason SEZ, North Korea is also promoting tourism. International routes to Pyongyang have increased. From Shanghai, regular flights are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays. Since April, chartered flights have been running from Harbin, and since July, from Xian. Other international travelers are visiting Pyongyang via Beijing, Shenyang, and Kuala Lumpur.
The KCNA reported that tourists are visiting Pyongyang and Kaesong on four-to-five day tour packages, touring many historical and cultural attractions including Myohyang and Mt. Kumgang.
With the opening of the Arirang Mass Games from August 1, more foreign tourists are expected to visit.
ORIGINAL POST (2012-5-16): The Hanns Seidel Foundation has made available the marketing and information flyer for the second Rason International Trade Exhibition (RITE) which will take place from August 20 – 23, 2012.
The marketing and information flyer is in a three-part PDF which you can download here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Pictured above (Google Earth): Pohang District, Chongjin (in red)
UPDATE 1 (2012-8-23): The Daily NK, which has been the only organization to cover the housing construction in Chongjin (see original post below), reports on the classic problem of political allocation of resources (in this case housing) in socialist economies. According to the article:
A source from Chongjin told Daily NK yesterday, “This rumor started going around that the apartments they are building would first go to decorated soldiers, veterans and discharged military officers, and then the rest would be distributed to ordinary people. As soon as that happened, a group of 40 or more people, many of whom had already seen their former homes demolished and thought they had priority on the housing list, got really angry.”
“The crowd went repeatedly to both the local administrative office and the district people’s committee to demand that a list of those assigned homes be made public,” he added.
During the protests, the source said, “Those who found they were not on the list warned that they would not stand idly by if their new homes were stolen from them. They didn’t back down from the guys from the Ministry of People’s Safety either, not for more than 30 minutes.”
The head of the local administrative office vacated his post due to the trouble and hasn’t been seen since, something that has made the aggrieved individuals even angrier. Upper level cadres are also refusing to meet them, and lower level figures are trying to wash their hands of the whole affair, saying that the list of those assigned apartments can no longer be changed. No longer thinking that the problem can be solved at the district level, the group has sent a letter to the provincial authorities outlining their grievances.
“Their point is that the authorities said that only a small number of the apartments would go to those people (decorated soldiers, veterans and discharged military officers), while most of them were supposed to go to ordinary families,” the source explained.
The source also explained the backdrop, saying that thousands of homes in the Namgang and Pohang areas of the Pohang district of the city have been destroyed since last June, and that the displaced residents from those homes have all been living with relatives and friends while waiting for the chance to move into what they thought were to be their new dwellings.
The problem is not over yet, either. According to the source, “It also looks like some facilities like shops and restaurants that were not on the original plans for an area around the amusement park are also being built, which will reduce the volume of housing available. Who can say how people from that area who’ve lost their homes will object if they lose out.”
This article is interesting to me because it answers a couple of questions I have had for some time: “What happens to families displaced by urban construction projects?” [Answer: for the most part, they go live with family members until replacement housing is allocated] and “How is new housing allocated if not through de-facto sales?” [Answer: Ideally through an objective and enforceable list based on “need”. However, this process is often corrupted. See here, here and here].
ORIGINAL POST (2012-8-14): According to the Daily NK:
It has been confirmed that affluent local wholesale traders have been co-opted to support the construction of apartment buildings in Chongjin, North Hamkyung Province.
A Chongjin source told Daily NK yesterday, “The construction of high-rise apartment buildings in the Pohang district of the city is being done by enterprises and ‘shock troops’, but there are also local go-betweens at the forefront connecting affluent traders from the region with the construction teams so that the latter can get materials as needed.”
The source went on, “It seems that most of the province’s rich people have gathered here. You can tell that there are people with genuine power involved in the construction by how fast the buildings are going up now.”
Since last May, Chongjin has been working to follow in the footsteps of the Mansudae area of Pyongyang by constructing apartments for 10,000 households, including 2,000 in the Pohang district. The project is said to be part of North Hamkyung Province Party Secretary Oh Soo Yong’s determined effort to show loyalty to the regime of Kim Jong Eun. However, the Party and state lacks the power to follow through on the plans.
The situation is not rare. Rich people and brokers acting as go-betweens are actively involved in all types of construction projects in North Korea today. This was even the case when Pyongyang planned the building of 100,000 apartments in time for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung earlier this year. Indeed, all North Koreans know that “without the go-betweens this country’s economy would seize up.”
Usually, the North Korean authorities get factory enterprises and units of ‘shock troops’ to do the state’s construction and set in place plans to secure the necessary cement, steel and other materials, but this part very rarely goes according to plan.
For one thing, factories need to be bribed if the construction sites want to get their materials delivered on time, so the middlemen have a close relationship with the factories. Meanwhile, the rich people who finance the construction later receive a share of the finished apartments in return.
Currently in Chongjin, a home on the 3rd or 4th floor of such an apartment costs about $5,000. A rich man investing $7,000 dollars in the construction of a building can expect to make about $3,000 in profit. Other floors cost $3,000-$4,000 at current rates. However, in Pyongyang prices are much higher, with apartments on the 3rd or 4th floor trading for as much as $10,000 dollars.
The source said, “There are nicely dressed men striding around the construction site checking on progress, and these are the rich folk.”
The publicly available satellite imagery of Chongjin is too old to show recent construction, and since I have no budget, staff, or connections to people who have the ability to get new satellite imagery, I cannot show you any recent pictures.
Despite the lack of physical evidence, however, I have good reason to believe that new residential construction is underway in Chongjin. This is because I do have publicly-available imagery of other DPRK cities and towns which are being “upgraded” with new apartment blocks. Recently I wrote about construction in Rason. I will post imagery of additional towns and cities if I get the time.
Read the Daily NK story here:
Rich Traders Invest in Chongjin Construction Daily NK
Choi Song Min
2012-08-10
Pictured Above (Google Earth): Construction of the Sporting Center on Tongil Street ( 38.979300°, 125.702961°)
I watched a documentary of Kim Jong-un’s guidance trips in May 2012 and noticed that there was a visit in the video that was never reported in KCNA (neither the .kp nor the .jp versions) . The visit was to the “Sporting Center in Thongil Street”. I have posted the relevant video to YouTube:
According to the chronology of the video, the guidance trip took place sometime between Kim’s attendance of a performance by the Unhasu Orchestra (2012-5-1) and his guidance trip to the Mangyongdae Funfair (2012-5-9). The visit was unlikely to have taken place on 2012-5-2, however, since Kim is reported to have visited the command of the KPA Air Force (which was not reported in the documentary).
I was unable to recognize the people who attended the guidance trip with Kim, so I asked Michael Madden (NK Leadership Watch), who is quite good at this sort of thing, for some assistance. Here is his response:
[Kim Jong-un] was accompanied at that visit by VMar Choe Ryong Hae, Jang Song Taek, VMar Hyon Chol Hae, Gen. Pak Jae Gyong, Col. Gen. Son Chol Ju, Pak To Chun, Hwang Pyong So and VMar Ri Yong Ho. Also in attendance were members of the Guard Command and KJU’s personal secretariat.
Interestingly, KCNA did report that Choe Ryong Hae visited this facility on May 30 and hinted at the earlier Kim Jong-un visit:
Choe Ryong Hae Makes Field Survey of Sporting Center in Thongil Street
Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army, on Wednesday made field survey of the Sporting Center in Thongil Street.
The construction of the modern center for the promotion of the people’s health started at the initiative of the dear respected Kim Jong Un and under his plan. It is now nearing its completion.
There are in the center with a huge plottage hundreds of sports apparatuses of various kinds, recuperation rooms, table tennis halls, a supersonic wave wading pool, etc.
Choe Ryong Hae went round various places of the center associated with footsteps left by Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un with loving care for the people.
Choe underscored the need for builders to fully display the serve-the-people spirit in building, bearing deep in mind the intention of the supreme commander to make the people fully enjoy wealth and prosperity under socialism.
Each sports apparatus is associated with the warm loving care of the supreme commander, Choe said, calling for managing apparatuses and equipment well to provide convenience to visitors on a priority basis.
Going round the meat and fish shop conducive to improving the diet of people, he underscored the need for the officials and servants of the center to fufil their responsibility and role, deeply cherishing their mission as the servants of the people in hearty response to the party’s slogan “We Serve the People!”
He stressed the need for the soldier-builders to thoroughly implement the order of the supreme commander and successfully complete the center as early as possible.
So I am unsure why KCNA never reported on this particular Kim visit. Theories welcome. It makes me wonder what other visits go unreported!
On 2010-11-5, the Choson Ilbo published a report on a North Korean video which portrayed an urban/architectural vision for the future of Rajin (Rason). I have uploaded this video to YouTube:
For those of you who don’t want to watch the video again, here are the relevant images:
The video begins with a quote by Kim Il-sung who insists that the DPRK needs to make Rason better than Singapore after-which it elucidates the viewer as to how this task will be accomplished. Part one of the video focuses on the reconstruction of downtown Rajin, where a broad new north-south boulevard lined with new housing and facilities is set to become the new city center.
When I first saw this video I interpreted it as more “wishful thinking” on the part of North Korea’s urban planners than a manifestation of actual policy proposals. According to new[ish] satellite imagery on Google Earth, however, it appears that the North Koreans are actually going for it:
The image on the left is an old one archived on my computer so I unfortunately don’t know the date. The image on the right is from Google Earth and was taken on 2011-6-19. The recenlty released Google Earth image actually predates the release of the North Korean video–so this is what the city looked like when the video was made public. Unfortunately I have not yet seen any new tourism photos from this area to determine if construction has continued to the present day.
Many houses have been demolished to make way for the new road, and I am not sure to where the dislocated families have been moved. If progress continues, however, many more Rajin residents can expect to see their homes demolished to make way for new high-rise apartments. To see a good example of the urban transition, look at what happened in Ryongchon.
Along the south end of the new road, we can see proposed construction projects in various stages of implementation–from “completed” to “unstarted”:
The Rajin Noodle Restaurant has long been completed. A new project to the north-east of the restaurant has been launched. I am not sure, but I believe it is either a new library or health complex. South of that is a construction site that has not yet been launched. The video also shows a large new stadium scheduled to replace Rajin’s humbe sports field and gymnasium. This work does not appear to have begun either.
If any readers can understand the video and pass along any helpful information I would appreciate it.
UPDATE 1: Calvin Chua of Choson Exchange writes in with the following commentary:
In general, these are three main characteristics of their urban plan which I gather from the video.
1) Functional Zoning
Like any typical urban master plan, Rason is divided into various zones: commercial, leisure, residential, distributed according to its geographical characteristics of hilly regions and the sea.
2) Emphasis of Axis and Roundabouts
There is a great emphasis on the long axial roads meeting at roundabouts which are filled with monuments and civic buildings. I believe this is largely influenced by their urban plan for Pyongyang which is planned according to early 20th century socialist urban model. In principle, it is should be efficient for vehicular movement and transportation of goods.
3) Relationship with Mountain and Sea and the 3D Effect Narrative
The urban plan is also built upon a visual narrative of the harmony between the mountain and the sea where the buildings are designed and placed strategically to provide a 3-dimensional effect‘입체감’ (a term that is constantly repeated throughout the video).
Aesthetics aside, Rason’s urban plan seems to be quite basic, it lacks the dynamism of other new SEZs, research parks that are currently being developed. Increasingly, cities are becoming more complex and developing the software infrastructure (data cables, monitoring systems, green technologies, etc) are becoming as equally important as developing the physical infrastructure (buildings and roads). New business parks like Songdo in Incheon are fully wired up jointly by IBM and Cisco. Urban planning and management has become a thriving business for tech companies like Siemens to construction conglomerates like Bechtel which offer one-stop solutions from financing to construction and layout grids for the city.
While Rason is far less sophisticated than Songdo, but in order to be a well-functioning SEZ, it needs to consider and provide better urban management systems beyond physical infrastructure. Rason would need to consider the project on a longer term basis since the urban infrastructure provided today will have economic ramifications in future. For example, to rewire or install new technological infrastructure in future would cost much more than planning for future expansion. Perhaps, it will be interesting to uncover their plans for these ‘soft’ infrastructures together with the organisations (multidisciplinary conglomerates) that would invest in them.
However, luck isn’t on Rason’s side, its development might be hindered by its geographical constraints. It is locked within hilly ridges and to pipe cable infrastructure to it might be costly and it also prevents future expansion of the city. As such, there are many hurdles for Rason to cross before becoming a well-functioning city.
Despite the fact that North Korea is currently in a period of mass mobilization for the agricultural planting season, North Hamkyung Province Party authorities are also pursuing a number of construction projects in and around Chongjin.
One of the plans calls for the construction of apartments for 10,000 Chongjin families after the fashion of the Mansudae area of Pyongyang, but local Party cadres and ordinary civilians see it mostly as an attempt by Provincial Party Chief Secretary Oh Su Yong to publicly display his loyalty to the regime of Kim Jong Eun.
A source from the city explained the story to Daily NK on the 24th, saying, “Most students and laborers have been mobilized for the farming support battle, yet in the middle of that the provincial Party is ordering the construction of apartments with more than 15 floors for 10,000 households in the Pohang district of Chongjin.”
“They are simultaneously doing large scale repairs in Pohang Square, constructing a coastal road and Youth Park, doing work on Chongjin Port and on a waste water purifying facility for Sunam Stream,” he added.
The construction has been entrusted to the city’s major construction enterprises, including 5.16 Construction Company, Ranam Combined Coal Mining and 6.2 Port Construction Industry. However, these do not have the financial capacity to purchase all the materials and equipment required, meaning that responsibility for providing sufficient gravel, sand and other basic items is being passed in part onto the local population.
“Households are being assigned the task of providing certain amounts of sand and gravel to certain construction sites,” the source explained. “People’s unit heads are going house to house every night pushing people to do their bit.”
“This whole thing is the result of the Party chief secretary wanting to show off his loyalty,” the source concluded.
Read the full story here:
Chongjin Facing Impossible Battle
DNK
Choi Song Min
2012-5-25
UPDATE 12 (2012-9-21): Taiwanese television was able to send reporters to the new Changjon Street construction site:
Part 1:
Part 2:
UPDATE 11 (2012-4-23): the Daily NK reports on the quality of the housing:
Complaints have emerged regarding the unfinished and potentially dangerous nature of some of the new apartments built at breakneck speed in Pyongyang to meet the 2012 deadline imposed by the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth and help give the impression of rapid development in the North Korean capital.
In order to declare the successful completion of the new apartments, which are most notably to be found in the Mansudae area of the downtown core, the authorities reportedly gave the order to move people into the buildings before the internal décor could be completed.
A Pyongyang source explained to the Daily NK, “Originally, there was no progress going on with new construction because of a serious shortage of materials, so they ordered it to stop while the interiors of finished apartments were dealt with.”
“Despite this order, the work brigades lacked the construction materials to finish the interior construction, and so they started passing responsibility on to the residents,” the source went on. “Most of them are reluctantly getting on with the interior construction, having been told by the work brigades that they are just going to have to get on with it.”
“The residents, scared as they are that they may lose their homes again after losing them once when they were ripped down in the first place, are just living in them while working on the interior construction,” he added.
However, the source noted, “Due to the serious burden of the materials needed to do that, a few others are selling their homes to middlemen,” before adding, “Soon-to-be residents are not readily moving in either, concerned as they are that the buildings might collapse.”
North Korea faces such difficulties not only because of chronic economic problems but because of corruption in the construction management system.
According to sources, cadres and site managers have been guilty of continuously diverting materials, such as sand and steel rods, materials which in a number of cases have come from local people, not the state.
A South Pyongan Province source criticized the situation, saying, “The authorities goal of ‘a hundred thousand homes’ has not been completed after three years of hard work. What is the purpose of offering materials to the state when the cadres are diverting them for themselves? Only the people will end up suffering.”
UPDATE 10 (2012-4-15): A reader sends in an April 15, 2012 satellite image of Pyongyang allowing me to produce before/after images of the construction:
Pictured above: Before and after pictures of the Mansudae Area renovations. Dates: 2010-10-6(L), 2012-4-15 (R)
North Korea announced that the apartment construction in the Mansudae area in Pyongyang is in the completion stage. This has been touted as a part of the effort in building a powerful nation. North Korea announced in January 2008 of its plans to construct 100,000 apartment units in Pyongyang by 2012 to provide housing for the residents.
The Rodong Sinmun, a mouthpiece of the Workers’ Party of Korea, announced on March 24 that, “The completion of Pyongyang Mansudae Apartment Complex is right before our eyes,” and “presenting a magnificent view of the new road in Pyongyang.”
North Korea is busily preparing for the centennial of Kim Il Sung’s birth on April 15, gathering military and youth brigades, and university students to the Mansudae area. When completed, it will house 14 high-rise apartments, convenient facilities and parks in the region.
According to a source in North Korea, “The apartment construction in Mansudae is built differently from the slipform method commonly found in the apartment construction in South Korea. It incorporates a combination of concrete and PC (precast concrete) method.”
The PC method uses less concrete than the reinforced concrete method. North Korea opted to use this method, as it is seen as a better choice for North Korea, which has limited construction equipment (such as concrete mixers and vehicles), and because of the tight time constraint.
Since the seventieth birthday celebration of Kim Jong Il on February 16, North Korea introduced newly constructed buildings and industrial facilities as a symbol of the strong and prosperous nation and as an achievement of Kim Jong Un’s leadership.
On February 23, Rodong Sinmun published an article, “Mansudae area will provide housing for the workers,” and “The nearly completed high-rise apartment is standing tall, boasting to the world of the greatness of our everlasting socialism under the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.”
In another article, the news reported, “The new road in the Mansudae area incorporates the paramount importance of the people and the masses. We will wholeheartedly remember our Father and Dear Leader Kim Jong Il’s love for his people through the new road.” It added, “At the behest of our General and under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, we are full of determination to construct a powerful socialist nation providing happiness to all the people on our land.”
Such statements are regarded as a movement to idolize Kim Jong Un, by acclaiming the construction of new buildings as emblematic of his accomplishment in building a strong and prosperous nation.
This is similar to what occurred in the 1980s and the 1990s, when there was construction of large-scale buildings including the Juche Tower,Monument to the Party Foundation, the West Sea Floodgate, and the Arch of Triumph. All these buildings were attributed as achievements of Kim Jong Il.
UPDATE 8 (March 2012): Google has updated imagery of Pyongyang:
Pictured above (Google Earth: 2011-10-6): Mansudae area renovation
UPDATE 7 (2012-2-14): Google has uploaded new satellite imagery of Pyongyang to Google Maps (but not Google Earth). I just started going through it, but we can see some of the changes in the Mansudae area:
Click images to see larger versions
Pictured to the left is the “before” picture (2010-10-6). The structures that have survived are outlined in yellow. To the right is the new image on Google Maps. I am unsure of the date this image was captured.
The structures that have survived (as of hte image date): 1. Part of the Changjon Primary School, the Pyongyang Kyongsong Kindergarten, and the Kumsong Middle School No. 1.
Access to the Sungri Metro Station also appears to be unimpeded.
Progress on the project to build 100,000 homes in Pyongyang is moving forward rapidly in at least one location: central Changjeon Street. According to a source from the city who spoke with The Daily NK yesterday, “There are around 30,000 homes being constructed along Changjeon Street, and the shells have almost all gone up.”
Changjeon Street is in the heart of Pyongyang, near well-known spots such as Mansudae Assembly Hall and the giant bronze statue of Kim Il Sung. The authorities are known to be focusing the state’s limited power on construction in this area, with the intention of completing at least the most visible part of planned projects ordered for the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth in April, 2012.
North Korea is understood to have invited a number of foreign dignitaries to witness several big events it has planned for next April, including the Spring Friendship Art Festival and the April 15th ‘Day of the Sun’ birthday celebrations. In that context, completing construction along Changjeon Street is a natural priority.
Changjeon Street was apparently given a further boost following the visit of Kim Jong Il to China in May. Kim was reportedly struck by the inadequacy of Pyongyang when held up against major cities in China, and called for improvement.
The authorities thereafter ordered that the skeletons of homes on Changjeon Street be completed by the anniversary of the Party foundation, which falls on October 10th. According to the source, “The pace of construction has picked up since the authorities ordered that the building frames be completed by October 10th.”
“They started work on a 40-storey building at the end of May, and now are up to the 35th storey. They are using a waterproofing agent that causes the cement to dry quickly, which means they sometimes get through three floors a day,” he continued.
Rodong Shinmun, the Party mouthpiece publication, described the renewed pace of operations on Changjeon Street last Thursday, stating proudly, “The blinding pace of the audacious construction offensive, paying no heed to night or day, has allowed for the construction of the framework of a 40-floor high-rise residential building in no time at all.”
Similar progress is being seen on road extensions and beautification projects nearby. The source said, “Road extension projects have been completed, including that of the road in front of the Botong River and Pyongyang Gymnasium. They’ve put flower beds by the side of the road and the whole area is now in a very good state.”
However, the fixation with construction on Changjeon Street is leading to accidents there, the source added, noting, “Because they only pressure us to speed up and don’t say anything about safety, there have been frequent incidents of workers falling.”
It is also causing other projects in the city to lag far behind. According to the source, “The authorities are doing renovations on houses along the main roads, but only painting and sprucing up the areas which can be seen. The buildings along Tongil, Hyungsaesan and Yongseon Streets were all demolished in 2009, but as yet there is no sign of progress from the company which has been tasked with the construction work.”
Finally, yesterday’s Rodong Shinmun, citing a statement from Kim Jong Il himself, went on to remind the people, “Construction in Pyongyang is not simply an issue of operational economics regarding the formation of roads and construction of homes, it is an important political issue related to the prestige of Socialist Chosun and dignity of the Kim Il Sung Motherland.”
This kind of propaganda push is aimed at ensuring the people are cogent of fact that modern buildings are being constructed by the authorities; an attempt to bring to life ongoing propaganda about the strong and prosperous state, which inside sources suggest is viewed with considerable public cynicism.
According to the Chosun Shinbo piece dated June 23rd, the construction at Mansudae is set to include a complex of 14 new apartment buildings, including North Korea’s tallest at 45 floors, a school, nursery and other public buildings. Elsewhere, there is a plan to pull down older construction in Mansu-dong and replace it with a park, and another to put up a modern cylindrical and square apartment building in the vicinity of Pyongyang Students’ and Children’s Palace.
Meanwhile, all the talk of modernity fits well with efforts to promote the youthful vigor of successor Kim Jong Eun, especially as it surrounds the statue of Kim Il Sung on Mansudae Hill, which is itself said to be undergoing a facelift.
In yesterday’s piece, Rodong Shinmun went on, “According to the Party’s grand capital construction plan, a fire of new Pyongyang creation is blazing violently in the ongoing Mansudae area construction,” adding, “According to this warlike strategy, in a short time, less than a month after it began, the groups taking part in the construction had achieved innovative results, digging the vast foundations of the new homes and laying the concrete.”
However, rumor has it that the reality does not meet the heights of this official propaganda, with the authorities having only managed to construct some 500 new residences in the period to the end of 2010.
UPDATE 4 (2011-6-8): KCTV has braodcast new footage of the construction zone and explained what a few of the new buildings will be. I have uploaded the particular video clip to YouTube, and you can watch it here.
Below are screen shots. In the picture on the left, we can see that many of the older buildings in the area have already been removed and holes have been dug for the new foundations. In the picture on the right we can see another conceptual shot of the area from the other side of the Taedong River.
A huge construction project has been undertaken to renew the looks of the Mansudae area of Pyongyang on the occasion of the 100th birthday of President Kim Il Sung (April 2012) as part of the grand capital construction plan of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
The project includes the construction of modern dwelling houses and a monumental structure in the area in central Pyongyang where the statue of President Kim Il Sung stands and the development of parks in the surroundings to meet the requirements of the new century. It will be a big stride forward to building Pyongyang magnificently as the world-level city.
The ground-breaking ceremony took place on May 22.
It brought together Premier Choe Yong Rim, Minister of the People’s Armed Forces Kim Yong Chun, Vice-Premiers Jon Ha Chol and Ro Tu Chol, officials from ministries, national agencies and municipality and tens of thousands of builders.
Premier Choe Yong Rim made a keynote speech.
He noted that leader Kim Jong Il saw that monumental structures were built everywhere in the capital to glorify the President’s revolutionary exploits for all ages. He then referred to the facts that the leader initiated the construction of Changgwang and Kwangbok Streets and other large projects and led them in the van to bring about a radical turn in building the capital and improving the people’s livelihood.
He said that under his wise guidance modern houses including those in Mansudae Street and at the foot of Haebang Hill, cultural and public service facilities, parks and recreation grounds were built in recent years and gigantic housing development and city landscaping projects are now dynamically pushed forward in Pyongyang.
More recently the leader suggested the development of the Mansudae area and took drastic measures to push the project from design to mobilizing the builders and supply of materials, he noted, and added that all the officials and builders should be well aware of the importance and significance of this construction, strictly observe the instructions of the designs, building operations and construction methods and work hard to create a new building speed.
He stressed the need to finish the construction of houses in Ryongsong, Sopho and Ryokpho areas in time together with the construction in the Mansudae area.
He called on the whole Party, the entire nation and all the people to turn out to support the construction in the Mansudae area.
He was followed by other speakers.
UPDATE 2 (2011-6-3):KCNA has finally published a story about the new construction in the Central District:
There started the project to build on the best level the Mansudae area in Pyongyang where President Kim Il Sung’s statue stands in the run-up to the centenary of his birth.
A monumental edifice, high-rise apartment houses, skyscraping buildings, public buildings and cultural and service facilities will appear as required by the new century in the vast area covering dozens of hectares where its old appearance will be no longer to be seen.
A new street will make its appearance as required by the modern sense of beauty, completely free from the existing mode of urban construction.
It will be unique in the formative artistic representation of architecture and the whole area will turn into a huge park. This is a new idea in the lay-out of the street in the area.
A round-shape big people’s theater will spring up in the area of Mansu-dong.
Trees of good species and flowering plants will be planted in the more than ten hectare area around the theater facing the Mansudae Assembly Hall. Promenades and public service facilities will keep in good harmony.
The height of the high-rise apartment houses to be built in the area covering hundreds of thousands of square meters in Kyongsang-dong, Jongro-dong and Taedongmun-dong is expected to gradually increase and twin tower buildings will be concentrated in the area near the Changjon Intersection so that one can enjoy a bird-eye-view of rhythmic distribution of huge buildings on the street.
A catering street will rise to face Okryu Restaurant and public buildings and cultural and service facilities of unique styles will be distributed to the convenience of the residents. They will be decorated with peculiar street lamps and diverse lights.
What draws attention in the lay-out of the streets is the fashionable appearance of high-rise and skyscraping apartment houses of peculiar styles, a harmonious combination of circular, semi-circular and angle style architecture.
The houses will have de luxe flats which will meet the cultural need of Pyongyangites.
When the construction of the Mansudae area completed, it will best match the monumental edifices including the Chollima Statue, the Tower of the Juche Idea, the Monument to Party Founding, the Grand People’s Study House and the Moranbong Theater and structures in the era of the Workers’ Party including An Sang Thaek, An Sang Thaek Street, Munsu, Mansudae and Changwang streets. This will change the appearance of the capital city beyond recognition.
Conceptual images of the construction area can be seen below.
UPDATE 1 (2011-5-24): In the comments, a reader points out a photo by a recent visitor to Pyongyang. See a LARGE version of the photo here. The photo (2011-4-24) shows that renovation of the Mansudae area began over a month ago. As of April 24, area families and all of their belongings had already been relocated (to where?); shops had been closed and emptied; and building destruction had begun.
I used the project overview map in the evening news to map out the construction area on Google Earth:
In Jongro-dong (종로동) the Pyongyang School Children’s Palace (평양학생소년궁전) will be spared destruction. It looks as if the exclusive Kumsong Middle School No. 1 next door (굼성제1 중학교–not to be confused with the Kumsong School in Mangyongdae) will be torn down, but I bet it will be spared.
In Mansu-dong (만수동) we will see the destruction of the historical Changjon Primary School (평양창전소학교) and the DPRK’s central bank. Maybe the central bank will get a home in the new facilities, but I have no idea.
In Kyongsang-dong (경상동) the Pyongyang Kyongsang Kindergarden (for musically gifted youngsters) as well as the Pyongyang Children’s Department Store will be torn down. These too may receive a new home in the reconstructed neighborhood facilities.
2. This residential construction project, though unlikely to be completed by April 2012, is probably part of the DPRK’s 2012 Kangsong Taeguk (강성대국) campaign. As part of the campaign, Pyongyang is to receive 100,000 new housing units. Read more about 2012 construction projects here, here, and here.
Many of the residents of luxury apartments in Pyongyang are leaving their homes for the heated homes of relatives or other warmer locations.
An inside source who visited Pyongyang at the end of last month said in a phone interview with the Daily NK today, “People previously had no supplies of water so didn’t have drinking water and could not go to the bathroom without difficulty, but now that there are heating problems too the people are inevitably leaving their homes. This year, many people are locking their homes and leaving for warmer places.”
The source said, “When I went to Pyongyang just three years ago, the people still stayed in their apartments even without heat, but now half of them are gone, they went to East Pyongyang where the pre-1980s homes are heated with charcoal briquettes.”
The source added, “Even until last year, the residents in these apartments spent the whole winter season there with cotton blankets on the floor all day long, filling pint bottles with hot water to warm their blankets when they slept; however, as the situation has gotten worse this year whole families cannot take any more and have chosen to leave their homes behind.”
The 20-40 storey apartments on Gwangbok and Tongil Streets, which are boasted of by the North Korean authorities for their modernity, are among those falling into dilapidation.
The source explained, “If the rooms had just enough lukewarm water that they wouldn’t freeze we could live, but now they are not even able to do that. Nobody knows when heat will come.”
Among many North Korean people, the situation is such that the letter ‘ㄹ’ has come to be ridiculed, with people saying that they suffer from a particular lack of words that have the letter ‘ㄹ’ in them, for example, water (‘물’), fire/electric (‘불’), and rice (‘쌀’).
North Korea’s capital faces its worst electricity shortages in years just as a new leadership takes power in the impoverished state and pushes ahead with lavish building projects to celebrate the centenary of its founder’s birth.
The Pyongyang-based diplomat, who asked not to be named, said the city of 3 million and home to the leadership elite, has seen daily power supplies almost evaporate as freezing winter temperatures bite.
“Embassies and others with generators are using them most of the time to compensate both for poor quality and cuts, and I can tell you that power problems are a main issue of discussion,” said the diplomat, one of a small number of foreigners allowed to live in the country.
“We certainly assess that there is more darkness on the streets and in the residential blocks in the evening than before/during the mourning period (for Kim Jong-il).”
The young Kim Jong-un has been declared the country’s new “supreme leader” following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December.
Fuel shortages have long been a chronic problem in North Korea which is heavily sanctioned by the outside world for a series of nuclear and missile tests.
Temperatures in the capital on Wednesday hit -19 Celsius (-2 Fahrenheit).
This winter’s outages have coincided with Pyongyang’s building spree to mark the 100th anniversary this year of the birth of founder Kim Il-sung — the current leader’s grandfather — including building 100,000 new homes in the capital.
The North is also struggling with chronic food shortages, with United Nations’ food agencies estimating nearly 3 million people will need food assistance this year.
Read the full stories here:
No Electricity, No Water, No Patience Daily NK
Choi Song Min
2012-1-13
North Korea Power Cut: Pyongyang Diplomat Says Capital Faces Worst Electricity Shortages In Years Reuters
2012-2-1
UPDATE 3 (2011-12-6): Accoridng to the Associated Press, six Americans from the Fuller Center are returning to the site to continue construction (just as the winter begins):
A group of Americans is in North Korea to kick off a project to build 50 homes for families working at a tree farm outside Pyongyang.
Six volunteers affiliated with the Fuller Center for Housing arrived Tuesday. Their trip comes at a time of improving relations between the U.S. and North Korea.
The 50-unit project will house the families of workers at a tree nursery in Osan-ri.
Participants with the nonprofit Fuller Center say they’ll be working side by side with North Koreans to build the homes.
They’re aiming to finish three homes this week, and other volunteers are expected to arrive in coming months to help complete the project.
In Americus, Georgia, Fuller Center President David Snell called the project a “true mission of peace.”
The United States and North Korea fought on opposite sides of the Korean War and do not have diplomatic relations. Diplomats from the two countries recently held talks about resuming six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
Below is the most recent Google Earth image of the Fuller Center’s Osan-ri project dated (2011-5-3):
UPDATE 2 (2011-7-13): Google Earth released new imagery of this area today (July 13). The imagery is dated 2010-9-14, and it shows quite a bit of progress on the Fuller Center’s project:
UPDATE 1 (2010-3-28):Radio Free Asia has reported (in Korean) that the development of the Fuller Center’s housing project in Osan-ri has been delayed.
After running the story through Google Translate it appears that the delay is due to bureaucratic hurdles with getting resources from China into the DPRK (please correct me if I am wrong).
Satellite imagery from March 2010 (Google Earth) shows that the project has been launched, but it has moved from its initial location to the east (just a tad):
A reader named “Bobby” wrote in, however, and told me the following:
The Google Translate version is a little wack but that’s pretty much what happened. The Korean version says that David Snell was originally going to buy the construction materials in China and deliver them directly to North Korea by truck but because there is too much to move they have to ship it by train. The delivery has been delayed because shipping it by train requires a lot of extra paperwork and customs obstacles. The workers can’t get visas until the materials arrive safely so they aren’t even able to enter the country yet.
(Also, I think you accidently blocked my name for commenting before.)
ORIGINAL POST (2009-12-18): The Fuller Center for Housing is a religious organization based in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) which seeks to provide adequate shelter across the globe. The Fuller Center’s mission statement can be found here.
On November 11, the Fuller Center broke ground on their new project in the DPRK. According to Global Atlanta:
With help from U.S. volunteers, the Americus-based Fuller Center for Housing will work with the North Korean government to construct a 50-unit complex in a small farming community outside the capital city of Pyongyang.
The project will help alleviate a housing shortage caused by a 2006 typhoon that destroyed some 30,000 homes across the country.
North Korea is providing land, labor and heavy equipment for the project, a community of duplexes designed with a variety of measures to boost energy efficiency.
For example, the homes will have a wall of windows on the front. Facing south will allow in the most possible sunlight, reducing the use of electricity to light the homes, said David Snell, the Fuller center’s president.
The Paektusan Academy of Architecture, a government agency responsible for developing much of modern Pyongyang’s cityscape, designed the complex and will manage construction.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom floor plans include a living room, dining room and an animal shed with multiple stalls on the back of the house. An upper-level attic space is designated as a “greenhouse” on a design posted on the Fuller center Web site.
The center is raising money for the homes from U.S. and European donors. Construction is slated to start in the spring, and the center will begin sending teams of six to eight American volunteers next summer.
Despite many Americans’ negative perceptions of North Korea, the center has started receiving volunteer applications before even officially opening the process, Mr. Snell said.
“The fact that it’s been a forbidden kingdom for all these years adds to the intrigue,” he told GlobalAtlanta.
Mr. Snell, who traveled to North Korea for the third time in the last 18 months to attend the groundbreaking, added that the center’s main mission is to build houses, but it often ends up bridging cultural divides in the conflict-ridden areas where it works.
“Absence of peace seems to be a common thread, so we’re starting to wonder if maybe we have a peacemaking component to our mission,” said Mr. Snell, who stopped in the Philippines and Peru to kick-start projects on his way home from North Korea.
Mr. Snell hopes to have an impact on relations between the U.S. and North Korea at a grassroots level. The nations are currently at odds over a raft of diplomatic issues, most notably North Korea’s evolving nuclear weapons program and belligerent antics on the international stage that befuddle American policy makers.
Such political differences won’t heal until people trust each other, and the housing project will give both countries’ citizens a chance to meet and work together for common good, Mr. Snell said.
“We all demonize our enemies, but I’m finding the Korean people to be just like you and me. We chuckle and laugh and tell stories, and they have the same aspirations for a better life and for peace,” Mr. Snell said. “This notion that we’re bringing peace is shared notion.”
The entire project has so far been an exercise in building trust. The idea came from Don Mosley, who heads Jubilee Partners, a refugee resettlement organization outside of Athens, and Han Park, an international affairs professor at the University of Georgia who has become a trusted unofficial liaison between the two countries.
More information, including YouTube videos of the groundbreaking and a map of the project, can be found on the Fuller Center‘s web page (HERE).
A campaign to beautify the streets of Yangkang Province [Ryanggang, 량강도] has begun to anger local residents, according to sources.
The beautification campaign has been implemented nationwide in preparation for next year’s planned festivities. In Yangkang Province this has translated into residents being compelled to lower fences, erect gables along roof lines and lime wash walls.
A source from the province reported on Tuesday, “An instruction came down from the Urban Management Department of the municipal committee of the Party telling us to ‘destroy all fences over two meters in height’. Now people are saying that only the thieves are happy.”
North Korean fences have traditionally been made with brush wood or bamboo, and more recently with planks of wood. In the early 1990s, the height of most fences was around one meter, but as the economic situation got worse, the fences got concomitantly higher. Now, there are three meter high fences in some places, according to defectors.
The source explained the residents’ fears, saying, “We built fences that high using our own money because there are so many thieves. But, the authorities have ordered us to destroy the high fences, so people are really annoyed.”
He went on, “Some people have even built their storage areas with the high fences forming part of the walls. So, at a time when they should be in the jangmadang, they have been destroying their storage along with the walls. Therefore, people are calling it a life and death situation.”
A second instruction has been to place gables on roofs in order to make them more aesthetically pleasing.
Another source explained, “There was an instruction to build gables a month ago, so people dug clay soil from the mountains and built the gables. But, during the rainy season, the roofs started leaking.”
He added, “People ask what they are meant to do to put gables on tumbledown old houses.’”
According to the source, the beautification campaign began when a person who used to be the chief manager in charge of Yangkang Province Guidance Department of the Central Committee of the Party was appointed as Chief Secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party (in 2009). People supposedly complain that he is tormenting people to garner a promotion.
In a similarly arbitrary process in 2000, Kim Jong Il caught sight of an apartment veranda with glass across it during a visit to Shinuiju, and summarily declared that all verandas should be so equipped. As a result, people had to add glass to their own verandas.
The competition to get as much glass on as many apartments as possible was fierce, according to sources, but then suddenly Kim, during a later onsite inspection in Hyesan, declared that all the glass was making apartments look like prisons, so it was all duly taken down again.
People thus assume that the energetic implementation of the current campaign is rooted in the desire of local officials to impress Kim Jong Il, a fact which is not improving their view of the situation.
Read the full story here:
Party Calls for Lower Fences and Splendid Gables Daily NK
Lee Seok Young
2011-7-26
