North Korea recently made alterations to its initial construction plans for Yonpo Greenhouse Farm, one of the country’s most important building projects this year.
This suggests that the authorities — faced with the COVID-19 quarantine crisis and the resulting economic difficulties — had little choice but to adjust their timetable.
A military source in South Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Thursday that early this month, the general construction headquarters at the Yonpo Greenhouse Farm construction site in Hamju County sent directives to the onsite headquarters of construction units that called for changes in the initial building schedule “to ensure that construction is complete by the Party Foundation Day [Oct. 10] deadline.”
According to the source, the general construction headquarters called for the building of the farm residences, public and production buildings and other buildings as planned.
However, it instructed that construction of the nutrient film technique (NFT) greenhouses — which account for 604 of the farm’s 852 greenhouses — be divided into two phases, with phase one to be completed by Party Foundation Day and phase two by nearly next year.
That is two say, half of the NFT greenhouse should be entirely completed by Oct. 10. With the other half, builders can simply complete the exteriors by Oct. 10, leaving the interiors to be completed by early next year.
“Soldiers and civilians from the entire country have been mobilized to the Yonpo Greenhouse Farm construction site, but it will be hard for them to finish by Party Foundation Day because the construction is so massive,” said the source. “There were severe labor shortages from mid May to early July, nearly two months, because people were quarantined due to COVID-19 at the building site.”
In fact, a quarantine tent appeared at the construction site as suspected COVID-19 cases emerged. However, the quarantine tent was removed at the end of July following an order from the general construction headquarters, with the quarantined soldiers and civilians sent back to their units or homes.
The source said four rotations of construction personnel have ensured there is manpower available, but there have been shortages of supplies such as rebar, timber and oil.
“On the ground, people say they think the general construction headquarters handed down the latest order because even it believes completion of the greenhouses by the deadline cannot be guaranteed given the current state of affairs,” he said.
Currently under construction in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province, Yonpo Greenhouse Farm is to be larger and potentially twice as productive as Chungpyong Vegetable Greenhouse Farm, built earlier in Kyongsong County, North Hamgyong Province.
Given that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for construction to be completed by Party Foundation Day when he took part in the farm’s groundbreaking ceremony in February, the general construction headquarters aims to achieve the original plan as much as possible so it can send a direct report to Kim himself by the deadline.
However, with the deadline approaching, the general construction headquarters — taking into account realistic issues and factors — unavoidably altered its initial building plan for the NFT greenhouses.
Meanwhile, the general construction headquarters has ordered units to ensure on their own the supplies and fuel needed to carry out their assigned construction tasks.
Accordingly, units are using the emergency fuel they have stored up for war and other crises at the Yonpo Greenhouse Farm construction site instead.
The units received prior permission from the General Staff Department and Ministry of Defense’s Petroleum Bureau to use their wartime oil reserves, with the General Staff Department and Ministry of Defense’s Petroleum Bureau conditioning that approval on the units later making up the oil that they used at the farm.
The source said that the general construction headquarters also called on the construction headquarters of the civilian labor brigades to carry out construction of the farm’s residential housing and public and production buildings “without any delays.”
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