North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is building new mansions for himself or trusted family and friends at a countryside retreat and a secretive Pyongyang compound, exclusive NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery reveals.

The construction — and likely need to import sanctioned luxury goods to furnish the mansions — comes as Kim repeated demands last week that the population work harder to overcome “present hardships such as economic difficulties.” His government is also keeping borders closed to large portions of trade for the general population as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. 

The projects both appeared ongoing as of Nov. 23, and suggest that the habitually absent DPRK leader is still prioritizing personal luxuries while the North Korean population suffers from a food crisis and other shortages.

LAKESIDE UPGRADE 

Kim Jong Un’s grandfather Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il both enjoyed a handful of mega mansions and pleasure boats on Lake Yonphung in the northwest region of the country, and the current DPRK leader has also frequented the lake over the years. 

Now, a new multi-story tower is visible at one of these lakeside mansion compounds, replacing a large section demolished this year. Kim may plan to use it himself, or it may be primarily for other family members, but researchers and defectors have only ever identified the particular mansion in question as under exclusive control of the ruling Kim family. 

According to NK Pro analysis of Planet Labs medium-resolution satellite imagery, a large construction worker camp appeared soon before demolition began in mid-May, while work on the new tall building started in mid-June. 

Historical Planet Labs imagery shows that pleasure boats are taken out of storage around March or April each year and docked near a cluster of mansions further south from the current construction project until October or November. Boats frequently moved between the mansion’s dock and a cove across the lake every year during these active months in available imagery taken since 2018. 

Lake Yonphung appears to be a favorite spot of Kim Jong Un: He oversaw a missile test near the mansions in May 2017 and publicly visited several times in 2014 to guide construction of a large holiday camp elsewhere on the lake for the country’s nuclear and aerospace scientists. He also visited a “Station for Stocking Lake Yonphung with Fishes” in Aug. 2018.

He may have increased visits after workers built a new helicopter pad near the boat docks between 2014 and 2016. Google Earth satellite imagery shows another mega mansion or guest house built during the same period at the southern edge of the lake, behind what the 38 North Digital Atlas identifies as an exclusive fish restaurant for Kim Jong Il.

PARTY COMPLEX VILLAS

Meanwhile in Pyongyang, construction started in mid-September on what appear to be four new villas inside the secretive Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) compound in the middle of the city, according to Planet Labs imagery.

The construction site is across the street to the west of Kim Jong Un’s main office in the WPK Central Committee building, and next to the so-called Changgwang palace that Kim Il Sung reportedly used decades ago. 

The villas appear to be more compact in size than the sprawling mansions on Lake Yonphung, and their footprints roughly match the size and shape of adjacent villas built in 2012.

One of the new buildings is going up in an empty lot where Kim Jong Il’s film archive once stood, according to the 38 North Digital Atlas, before Kim Jong Un apparently had it demolished in the summer of 2012 just after his father’s death. 

Reliable information is scarce about whether Kim Jong Un or other family members use this area of the WPK compound, but the smaller size of the villas suggests they may be for family members or others in his inner circle. 

The new construction comes after a spate of new large-scale projects in the WPK complex in 2019 and 2020 to build new party offices and other facilities. 

LUXURIOUS LIFE OF THE LEADER

North Korea’s ruling Kim family has built dozens of mansions around the country since Kim Il Sung became dictator in the late 1940s, and Kim Jong Un has only kept up the tradition. 

NK Pro previously revealed that he built a new complex of villas in 2019 on the east coast near Wonsan, and that he also ordered his private jet runways demolished the same year to make way for new horse tracks at several of his palace compounds. 

More recently, another one of his private runways was demolished in May 2021 at the Myohyangsan Kim family retreat — though nothing has been built in its place yet — and a private railway station in Pyongyang near one of his largest mansion compounds was upgraded in mid-2020.

Edited by Arius Derr