North Korean construction crews have built a large worker camp in recent weeks in an exclusive area of Pyongyang where two large guesthouses for foreign leaders are located, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery.

The size of the camp suggests a large project is or will soon be underway, although other signs of construction in the area, such as land clearing or demolition, have yet to emerge. The camp was built between Feb. 8 and 14 and grew larger by Feb. 21, Planet Labs imagery shows. 

The same patch of land was used to house a worker camp in 2019 during the rapid construction of the luxurious Kumsusan Guesthouse complex for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who stayed there that June, suggesting the new camp could be for construction on another new guesthouse in preparation for a special foreign visitor.

This comparison shows that the new construction worker camp is located in the same place as one built in 2019 during construction of the Kumsusan Guesthouse | Images: Google Earth (April 21, 2019), Planet Labs (Feb. 20, 2023), edited by NK Pro

Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov all stayed in the older Paekhwawon Guesthouse complex the previous year, located just to the south of the camp. A Myanmar military delegation also stayed in other guesthouses nearby to the west in 2008.

North Korea has not hosted a foreign leader or government official in over three years and has not allowed any inbound travel under its COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. 

While the purpose of the new construction site is still unknown, it is unlikely that a new 3,700 home project that Kim Jong Un announced earlier this year will be built at the site, given the highly secure nature of the area in southeast Pyongyang — sandwiched between the two guesthouses and an apparent air force base built in 2015 directly to the west.

State media has reported that authorities mobilized at least 100,000 young people to work on the new housing project, meaning it will also likely have a much larger camp than the one in the guesthouse district. 

Tens of thousands more North Koreans have been moved to other new construction camps in recent weeks, including in northern Pyongyang’s Hwasong area for the second stage of a major housing project and in the northeast suburb of Kangdong for a new large greenhouse farm.  

Hundreds of additional tents appeared near the sprawling Hwasong street construction site this month. Some are clearly related to stage two of the project, while others on the left side of the image may be either for the Hwasong project, the 3,700 home project state media has recently teased, or something else. | Image: Planet Labs (Feb. 1 and Feb. 20, 2023), edited by NK Pro

Edited by Arius Derr