North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inaugurated what state media proclaimed as the “largest-ever greenhouse farm” on Monday, underscoring his focus on regional development and the revitalization of an area that suffered widespread flood damage last year.

At the groundbreaking ceremony of the 1,112-acre (450 hectares) greenhouse farm and a vegetable science research center in the northwestern city of Sinuiju and in Uiju County, Kim declared the new project part of “a grand new construction plan for the greater local change,” the party-run Rodong Sinmun reported on Tuesday. 

The newspaper describedthe construction of the new farm as “a great