As North Korea slowly emerges from five years of self-imposed pandemic isolation, a glittering new high-rise neighborhood in the capitalPyongyang is taking center stage.
Photos of the 10,000-apartment development, released by state news agency KCNA after the country’s leader Kim Jong Un inspected the site Saturday, show residential skyscrapers spilling out from a wide boulevard in the new district, Hwasong.
The project is part of a major construction drive in the capital, and across much of the internationally isolated, authoritarian nation, intended to improve living standards.
The homes are part of an ambitious five-year plan, announced in 2021, to build 50,000 additional apartments in Pyongyang, where residents’ quality of life is considerably higher than elsewhere in the impoverished country.
But despite the gleaming images of Pyongyang’s new skyline, high-rise living in North Korea is not necessarily a symbol of luxury. Frequent power outages mean that elevators in residential buildings often do not function, making daily life difficult for those living in upper floors. As a result, younger residents are typically assigned higher apartments, while older residents are moved to lower floors to minimize the physical strain of climbing stairs, as witnessed by CNN during multiple visits to the country.
Housing shortages remain a significant challenge for North Korea, which is also grappling with a faltering economy, surging commodity prices, and ongoing food insecurity. A 2021 study by researchers from South Korea’s Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology suggested that the country only has enough homes to accommodate 70% to 80% of its households. Outside of the showpiece capital, many homes are dilapidated and lack consistent access to electricity, clean water and sewage services.
The new neighborhood features numerous tall towers — two of which are connected by a soaring skybridge — as well as “educational, commercial and service facilities,” according to state media. KCNA claimed that Kim was closely involved in the design and “energetically led the work of drawing up the construction plan.”
Kim’s site visit comes ahead of the official opening ceremony on April 15, one of the country’s most important public holidays, celebrating the birthday of his grandfather, North Korea’s late founder, Kim Il Sung.
The opening will complete the third stage of construction at Hwasong, an area described by state media as a “beautiful and modern urban quarter” that signifies “a new era of prosperity” for Pyongyang.
Pyongyang has been largely closed off to visitors since North Korea shut its borders in response to the Covid-19 pandemic more than five years ago. A small number of Russian tourists visited the city in 2024, though the capital was off-limits to the international tour group that entered the country last month before trips were again suspended. The latter group was only permitted to visit Rason, a special economic zone near the country’s border with China and Russia.
Hwasong is the latest in a series of recent urban developments in Pyongyang, which is known for its pastel-colored, Soviet-style architecture. Other large residential projects have been built around Mirae Scientists Street and Songhwa Street, where the country’s second tallest building — the Songhwa Street Main Tower — was completed in 2022.
North Korea is also expanding housing beyond Pyongyang, building thousands of homes in mining towns and rural areas. While these projects aim to modernize the country, they rely on soldiers and civilian laborers working under harsh conditions with little pay.
Housing is assigned by the government, prioritizing those who are considered most loyal to the ruling Kim family and people working in sectors considered most valuable to the nation, such as scientists and engineers.
State media has previously boasted about the pace of construction in the capital, dubbing it “Pyongyang Speed.” Officials claim to have completed the frame of a 70-story skyscraper at the capital’s Ryomyong New Town in just 74 days.
But experts have expressed concerns about the quality of the construction materials and workmanship on the country’s building projects — especially after a Pyongyang apartment building, which may have housed dozens of families, collapsed in 2014. State media attributed the disaster, for which no official death count was disclosed, to “sloppy building” and “irresponsible supervision of officials.”
North Korea’s military, which plays a central role in the country’s construction projects, has likely been instrumental in completing the new district, as it has with previous large-scale developments. There are more than 1 million active-duty personnel and conscription is mandatory. Most men are required to serve for at least ten years, starting from age 17, often without any contact with their families. Even after serving, they remain part of a civil paramilitary force, numbering in the millions.
Kim has recently signaled that his government’s construction plans now stretch beyond the five-year targets announced in 2021. Last month, he said the capital’s “rundown and old” neighborhoods will also be redeveloped in the near future.-BBC
