North Korea officially opened construction Saturday on another street of ornate skyscrapers to address “housing problems” for 10,000 Pyongyang residents, according to state media, part of a wider plan introduced last year to build 50,000 homes in the capital by the end of 2025. 

DPRK leader Kim Jong Un told thousands of workers gathered at a groundbreaking ceremony to overcome “mounting economic hardships” and feel pride in helping build a “bright socialist future,” according to the Rodong Sinmun.

Work began on the first set of 10,000 homes under the five-year construction plan in spring 2021 in the Sadong district of southeast Pyongyang.

Kim said in Saturday’s speech that this year’s project, located in the Hwasong area in the city’s northeast corner, should finish within three years and be carried out across multiple stages. 

According to a 3D render of the street published in state media on Sunday, the new Hwasong area will feature one 40-plus-floor skyscraper, around two dozen apartment towers of 20 to 30 floors each and another two dozen or so smaller apartment buildings, schools and shopping areas.

The design plan appears to suggest that parts or all of the sprawling Pyongyang Vegetable Science Institute will be demolished to make way for the new apartments.

Planet Labs satellite imagery shows that some of the institute’s greenhouses were already demolished in late January and that a large construction worker tent camp began to appear on site in the Hwasong area around four months prior to Saturday’s groundbreaking ceremony.

The ceremony came as thousands of military and civilian officials in the construction sector gathered in Pyongyang last week for a multi-day workshop about how to successfully carry out the ruling party’s grand plans for building across the country. 

In his speech on Saturday, Kim said new street projects will be introduced in future years in different parts of Pyongyang, appearing to refer to the Sopho and Kumchon districts mentioned in a previous speech, while pushing comprehensive rural construction nationwide.

State media has also characterized a smaller project in the Taephyong district of west Pyongyang — featuring around a dozen new apartment towers — as part of the five-year, 50,000-home project, indicating that the wider plan is not limited to the major street projects that Kim opens with large ceremonies like the one on Saturday.  

The project is ambitious, coming as North Korea has failed to finish its top construction projects by Kim’s deadlines for the past three years. 

In a letter of instructions to last week’s construction workshop, Kim Jong Un reportedly lamented delays while also urging workers not to focus too much on deadlines — a line he repeated in his speech on Saturday. 

Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un signaled on Saturday that an official opening ceremony for the new Sadong district skyscraper street could be held around the April 15 holiday celebrating the 110th birthday of founding leader Kim Il Sung, saying “we can now visualize many citizens of the capital city moving in delight into new houses on the new street in the run-up” to the holiday.

Kim originally ordered that workers finish the project before the new year, or within nine months, and state media later boasted of inexperienced soldiers building one floor of an 80-story skyscraper every 16 hours despite lacking proper equipment.

North Korea typically builds its skyscrapers out of concrete, rebar and hand-molded bricks.

Updated on Feb. 13 at 9:45 a.m. KST to include satellite imagery

Edited by Bryan Betts