The North Korean authorities proclaim that they will have constructed 100,000 houses in Pyongyang by 2012, thus solving Pyongyang housing shortages by the time North Korea is scheduled to have become a strong and prosperous state. Therefore, the success or failure of the housing project will be a key standard by which to judge the strong, prosperous state claim overall.
Chosun Shinbo, a publication of Chongryon (the pro-Pyongyang General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan), reported on Wednesday, “Now, in Pyongyang, 100,000 houses are under construction. It is an all-out war which will show the national power of North Korea. In order to achieve it, the North Korean authorities are mapping out measures to focus on the construction field.”
Chosun Shinbo further revealed, “The construction of 100,000 houses in Pyongyang, which was initiated at Chairman Kim Jong Il’s suggestion, is one of the key planks of the 2012 plan. When the 100,000 houses are completed, Pyongyang residents’ housing problems will be completely solved.”
The construction of 100,000 homes is the biggest housing project North Korea has ever undertaken, the Shinbo reports. In the 1980s and 1990s, 50,000 household apartment complexes were built on Kwangbok (Liberation) and Tongil (Unification) streets, taking around five years each. The current construction is twice the size but is supposed to be completed in just three years.
Along with the railroad from Ryeokpo-district, a southern outlying area of Pyongyang, to Ryongseong-district, 20,000 houses will be built, in downtown Pyongyang 15,000 houses, in the area around Mankyungdae 65,000 houses. Each home will be approximately 100 square meters in size and supplied to citizens at nominal cost.
The publication cited the Chief of the Central Command for Construction Kim Kook Nam, who apparently said, “Factories across the board are producing materials, and 20,000 workers will be mobilized overall. Along with the construction of 100,000 houses, a massive hydroelectric power plant will be built in Heecheon, Jagang Province in order to supply the electricity for them.”
Chosun Shinbo noted, “Workers in charge of this construction project are engaged in a ‘speed battle’ because they have to meet a deadline, the year 2012.”
However, according to the August edition of “NK IN&OUT,” a publication from the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights (NKnet), the construction of 100,000 houses has not been progressing well due to a lack of construction materials.
A very negative precedent was set back in 2001, when the North Korean authorities tried to establish a satellite city between Mankyungdae and Nampo for a million people, but it came to nothing due to severe economic limitations.
