North Korean authorities have already begun selecting families to move into 10,000 newly constructed homes in Pyongyang this autumn.
The move follows a recent order by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
A source in North Korea told Daily NK on Monday that Kim issued an order on July 5 to begin selecting residents for the 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang this year. “The order basically calls for the early selection of families to move into the Sadong and Songhwa districts based on recommendations from military and government institutions,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Cabinet issued the order to an agency in charge of constructing the new homes and the Pyongyang People’s Committee.
The directive was coined, “Plan for Executing the Policy of Comrade Kim Jong Un to Stabilize the Lives of Pyongyang’s People.”
The ruling party, government, and military have simultaneously begun scrambling to respond to the order, as it expresses the will of the “Supreme Leader.” Party and government organizations are focusing on the evicted residents of razed neighborhoods near the construction site, “innovative workers,” Korean War veterans, decorated soldiers, and retired military officers as residents for the new homes.
The military, for its part, is placing a priority on putting military families from nearby bases into the new housing. Military leaders reportedly plan to include families evicted from their homes and strawberry fields last July when Kim ordered the expansion of the General Artillery Shooting Range in Daewon Village, which is part of Pyongyang’s Sadong District.
According to the source, though each region in North Korea is slightly different, residents of new apartments are chosen and issued “occupancy certificates” about a month prior to the certified completion of construction. As such, it is noteworthy that the selection process for the new apartments in Pyongyang is starting relatively early.
The early start of the selection process suggests that North Korea’s leaders — who publicly declared during the Eighth Party Congress in January that they would build 50,000 new homes in Pyongyang over the next five years — want to demonstrate they will follow through with their promise.
The authorities may also hope that gifting people new apartments will turn public attention away from their failure to deliver promised rations of rice from military stores. In short, the leadership may be trying to sooth public anger resulting from economic difficulties blamed on the global COVID-19 pandemic.
This atmosphere of discontent is being felt within the command center managing the building of the 10,000 new homes, according to the source. There is talk everywhere within the command center that they need to complete the first round of putting people into the new homes by Party Foundation Day (Oct. 10) and the second round by the end of November “if they want to survive.”
Ordinary people, however, are responding coolly to talk of speeding up the process. Many, in fact, have gotten a very good look at the construction sites because residents of villages close to the building sites have frequently been mobilized for construction work.
Those who are familiar with the building sites are expressing concern about the excessively fast pace of construction. They are calling it the “Pyongyang Gust of Wind Technique,” which suggests that the construction work has been rushed and less-than-precise. Essentially, people are very worried that shoddy construction could result in building collapses.
Many people are reportedly complaining that the project is just another “exercise in self-reliance.” They are saying that it is clear that “80% of the homes supposed to be occupied by the end of the year” will “only be frames by that time,” and that they will only be able to survive the cold winter “if we install the underfloor heating, doors, windows, wallpaper, and windscreens ourselves.”
Meanwhile, the Urban Management Department of the Pyongyang People’s Committee has begun formulating new “occupancy regulations” in close cooperation with the project’s construction headquarters.
The source said the Urban Management Department is already stressing that selected families must be “all moved in” and living in their new homes within two months of being issued occupancy certificates and allocated an apartment. Violators could have their new apartments confiscated, the department warned.
