Architectural designers and other key personnel were transferred from the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourism Zone project to the Pyongyang General Hospital project earlier this month, Daily NK has learned.
The move of personnel comes after North Korea’s leadership recently decided to focus the country’s efforts on constructing the Pyongyang General Hospital.
Only a few high-level construction-related officials remain at the Wonsan-Kalma project site. With the exception of workers focused on “interior construction,” construction workers at the site have reportedly been ordered to work on farm fields from the “end of May to mid-June.”
The completion date for the project was set for April 15 of this year and there are signs that the lack of construction materials and labor will end up pushing the completion date back even further.
38 North, a North Korea-focused website, reported on May 19 that several resort facilities on the project site remain incomplete.
“Construction on the site more or less stopped in mid-March because of the lack of construction materials and labor,” a source inside the country told Daily NK on May 25. “There are worries that the project won’t even be completed by Oct. 10.”
Oct. 10 is the 75th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s communist party.
“There was an attempt to finish the project by Apr. 15 by forcing soldiers to work on construction in the terrible cold in January, February and March, but they only managed to finish about 60% of the facilities,” the source said.
Daily NK reported in March that North Korea tried to push military construction units to finish the project by Apr. 15.
*Translated by Violet Kim
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