Although Kim Jong Eun is not allowed to be seen at the location where an
apartment building collapsed on May 13th in Pyongyang, it was
reported today that Kim did visit another construction site in the North Korean
capital.
According to Rodong Sinmun, Kim “looked round the construction site of
apartment housing for Kim Chaek University of Technology lecturers.” He
commented on architectural matters, an area that he is alleged by state propaganda
to have expertize, noting that the buildings “look like a sailboat floating on
the River Taedong” and that they are “fashionable structures reflecting the Party’s
intention to steadily improve formative art in architecture.”
For those hoping to find evidence of rising concern for the quality of
construction in the wake of last week’s collapse, there was both positive and
negative news in the report.
On the one hand, it noted that “it is the work-style of the
soldier-builders of KPA Unit 267 to fully meet the requirements of the
construction method and successfully ensure the safety of the structure,
holding high the slogan ‘Let us take responsibility for the safety of the
project and guarantee its absolute quality for all eternity’.”
The report also carefully pointed out that Kim “praised the
soldier-builders for constructing [the apartment building frames] as required
by the design ratified by the party.”
However, there is the widespread presumption that the collapse, which is
believed to have caused considerable loss of life, was brought about by a
combination of corruption, resulting in the use of insufficient or inadequate
materials, and North Korea’s mass mobilization culture, which demands that
projects be completed as quickly as possible via the mass use of non-specialist
labor, usually drawn from the ranks of the military.
On this front, Kim did not inspire any confidence, saying that the housing
project and its affiliated infrastructure ought to be complete “by the Day of
the Sun [April 15th] next year,” and that this would be achieved “by
sending a powerful building force made up of service personnel to the
construction site.”
Analyzing the latest information, Sejong Institute senior researcher Cheong
Seong Chang told Daily NK, “Kim Jong Eun’s public activities only take place at
locations that have broad significance in terms of propaganda aimed at the [North
Korean] population. If he were to go to the site of the collapse then certainly
people wouldn’t be able to voice their complaints. However, it’d be difficult
to imagine a good reaction from the people so he is intentionally avoiding
it.”
