New upgrades are underway at North Korea’s primary international airport in Pyongyang, NK Pro analysis of recent satellite imagery shows, following a complete rebuild of its main terminal and grand reopening in mid-2015.

Recent satellite imagery also reveals the apparent dismantling of a previously-upgraded military-use runway near a Pyongyang-area mansion compound, as well as new construction in two other locations lending a boost to the city’s elite “air clubs.”

The reason for the Kangdong Airfield’s disappearing structures is unknown, though the facilities now being dismantled were built anew after a visit from Kim Jong Un to the airwomen’s unit stationed there in 2014.

Meanwhile, new high-resolution satellite imagery reveals that the existing Mirim Air Club — featuring a small 500-meter airstrip for use by ultra-light aircraft — has seen the construction of a new attached building complex.

The Pyongyang City Air Club also received a new building complex next to the newly-remodeled East Pyongyang Stadium, reportedly at the behest of DPRK leader Kim Jong Un. 

Pyongyang Sunan International Airport

Various new construction projects at the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport have been ongoing since summer 2017, starting with large new industrial facilities, while work on an addition to these buildings and new structures next to the terminal began in mid-2019.

Daily medium-resolution satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs shows that three large industrial buildings were built just off the southwest edge of the airport runway between June 2017 and June 2018, with roads appearing to run through them. 

The new buildings are connected to roads that, since at least the oldest Google Earth imagery from 2005, lead to underground facilities inside an adjacent mountain.

Construction of a new rail section leading from the airport station towards these buildings also began in February 2018.  

In April 2019, a new large and narrow building began to be built at the terminus of the new rail section, appearing complete in a November 22, 2019-dated Google Earth high-resolution satellite image.

As of early January, the rail line has yet to be completed, the imagery suggests.

But construction also began last fall on large buildings along the airport’s tarmac and next to the main terminal.

The foundations of two large buildings can be seen carved into the ground in the latest November 2019 Google Earth imagery, built after the demolition of around a half-dozen smaller structures.

According to Planet Labs daily imagery, those buildings were demolished in early August, though by early January 2020 it appears only concrete foundations or perhaps only a few floors of construction had been completed on the new buildings. 

South of the terminal building, too, the imagery shows that a series of smaller structures have been newly built since spring 2019.

These do not appear related to stated plans presented by North Korea’s General Administration of Civil Aviation (GACA) in 2016 to build a hotel and a hospital near the airport and new parallel runways.

Meanwhile, work on new housing blocks has continued in multiple areas in the airport’s vicinity, including in rural districts around the north runway, directly to the south of the main runway, and adjacent to the new industrial facilities detailed above.

Many of these are part of what is frequently referred to in state media as an “important construction” project to “rearrange areas surrounding the Pyongyang International Airport” (평양국제비행장 주변정리공사) — most recently mentioned alongside the Wonsan-Kalma beach resort and major Samjiyon project in a speech at the January 5 Pyongyang mass rally. 

State media has yet to provide details on the ongoing construction at the airport itself.

Kangdong Airfield

The Kangdong Airfield, located to the immediate northeast of Pyongyang, is a once-important military-use airbase that has in recent months begun to be dismantled.

Kim Jong Un appears to have visited the site in March 2014, as identified by the military-focused Oryx Blog, as part of an inspection of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 2620, a women pilots unit.

The runway was then completely rebuilt starting in April 2015, with homes and facilities which Kim had inspected being demolished and new hangars built next to the new runway.

The new hangars, however, languished half-built without roofs until finally being added in winter 2016-17, during that time exposing foundations inside for large circular structures 25 meters in diameter.

But these new buildings built only a few years ago at Kangdong are now being dismantled, according to the latest Planet Labs satellite imagery.

The medium-resolution daily imagery (below) shows that the roofs of the structures were removed between August 13-20 last year, and that the small attached doorway annexes in the rear were also later removed.

The outer frames of the hangars were still standing, however, as of mid-December, according to Planet imagery.  

And while the Soviet-made Yak-18 and Chinese copy Nanchang CJ-5 planes present both during Kim’s visit and after the upgrades disappeared entirely from the site sometime after mid-2016, the latest January imagery showing snow-cleared runways suggests the site may still be operating.

There has been some speculation in the past that the airfield may have been used as another private runway for Kim Jong Un to access his family mansion compound nearby, though the route from the airfield to the compound is not as direct as a private train station more closely attached. 

NK Pro reported last week that two of Kim’s other private runways built around the same time as the Kangdong upgrades were dismantled as well since last fall and rapidly replaced with new horse-riding tracks.

Pyongyang’s “air clubs”

Another new airfield built around the same time period as the Pyongyang airport renovation, the private airstrips, and the new Wonsan Kalma Airport was the Mirim Air Club (미림항공구락부) in the southeast of the North Korean capital.

The 500-meter airstrip and adjoined facilities, built over the winter of 2015-16, is used by light aircraft for guiding sightseeing tours over Pyongyang.

But it then saw more upgrades over the summer of 2018, according to satellite imagery, which do not appear to have since been reported by either state media or outside analysts.

The upgrades include four new buildings of unknown purpose directly attached to the existing facilities, and appear separate from the Mirim Riding Club equestrian complex to the north.

Nearby, another separate club, the Pyongyang City Air Club (평양시항공구락부), has received new facilities built according to leader Kim Jong Un’s own instructions, according to state media.

These facilities comprise two buildings, the Pyongyang City Air Club Headquarters and Flight Education Technology Agency (시항공구락부종합청사와 대중항공체육기술보급사), next to the East Pyongyang Stadium newly-renovated at the same time.

Kim Jong Un was said to have ordered its construction and guided its operations in a September 2019 article in the ruling party daily Rodong Sinmun.

The club has been promoted in state media in the past as providing flight education through simulators and flying model planes, as well as parachuting practice and simulations.

Edited by Oliver Hotham