After a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the third phase of a residential development in the Hwasong District of Pyongyang, satellite images show that groundwork and construction are in progress at the site.
Analysis of imagery taken by Maxar on Apr. 28 shows that apartment walls and buildings are being built on one side of the development and that the ground is being leveled on the other side. The entire third phase of the development is estimated to occupy 95 hectares. Temporary housing for workers was also spotted near the construction site.
Generally speaking, the construction of a large apartment complex begins with the building of temporary structures (such as the management office and cafeteria) and the groundwork and foundation work, all of which takes a substantial amount of time. In South Korea, for example, foundation work generally goes down to the second basement level, a process that takes around four months.
But in this North Korean project, buildings began to go up as soon as the groundbreaking was held in February, and the construction seems to be proceeding very quickly.
That is because North Korea builds apartments at the ground level without any underground parking lots or other facilities. By leveling the ground without digging a foundation, it is possible to greatly reduce the timeframe needed for construction. That is also how North Korea was able to set April 2025 as the deadline for completing construction on the third phase of the Hwasong residential development.
Work continues into the late hours of the night
Satellite imagery also showed that the Hwasong construction site was illuminated at night, suggesting that construction work is continuing into the late hours.
An analysis of a Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite taken at 1:30 am on May 1 by the Joint Polar Satellite System (which is jointly operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, in the United States) shows that not only the construction site in the third phase of the Hwasong development but also the streets in the first and second phases, which are already complete, are brightly lit up at night.
The lighting in the already built areas may have been aimed at promoting the successful construction of these apartment buildings, while the lighting in the third phase of the development may be aimed at enabling nighttime work so as to hurry along construction.
In fact, a Korean Central News Agency article on Feb. 26 reported that “nighttime support ‘shock troops’ are working briskly at construction sites on Chonwi Street and in the second phase of the 10,000-home building project in the Hwasong District, helping to accelerate the construction timetable.”
Supplementary work crews, which are known as “shock troops” in North Korea, are often assigned to large construction projects. They do heavy-duty labor for long hours, often taking on the hardest and most dangerous tasks at construction sites. The international community regards North Korea’s shock troops as a form of forced labor and a serious infringement of human rights.
North Korea’s Hwasong District appears to be similar in size to the Yeouido neighborhood of Seoul.
Based on an analysis of satellite imagery, the first, second and third phases of the Hwasong development are presumed to cover a total of 290 hectares, with 125 hectares in the first phase, 70 hectares in the second phase and 95 hectares in the third phase. That is the same as Yeouido, which is around 290 hectares in size.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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