North Korea has altered plans for its top housing project of the year, adding a skyscraper and simplifying exterior designs of other high-rise apartments in a new Pyongyang neighborhood.

The changes to the “10,000-home” street project in the city’s northeast Hwasong area were visible in a new computer rendering in the Rodong Sinmun published on June 3. It shows that planners duplicated floor plans for the street’s tallest building, an ornate 40-story skyscraper, to turn it into a two-tower set.

The image also shows that exterior accents on this 40-story building design and others have been simplified and their color schemes changed, perhaps an indication that original designs were too difficult for builders to achieve or that organizers lack the resources to achieve them. 

State media has consistently stated the project is being carried out “despite the severe trials and difficulties” posed by COVID-19-related lockdowns and economic problems. 

A similar simplification of advanced architectural designs was evident between the planning and building stages of an 80-story skyscraper built in Pyongyang last year — a tower originally slated to be 50 stories before a mid-project redesign. The doubling of the Hwasong street building’s 40 stories to 80 between two skyscrapers is a similarly ambitious upgrade to construction plans in the capital city. 

Planet Labs satellite imagery shows that work on the foundation for the original single 40-story tower began in mid-February along with the rest of the street, but that the second tower did not begin to take shape until early May. As of June 3, the first building appeared to reach one or two dozen stories and the second building at least a few stories.

Building organizers appeared to change plans after starting construction on the first tower, initiating work on the second one over two months later | Images: Planet Labs PBH, edited by NK Pro

State media has reported throughout the first week of June that various civilian and soldier construction units had “finished the framework of several skyscrapers” and are “nearing completion” on framework construction throughout the entire site. An image published in the Rodong Sinmun last week showed ornate roofing accents already being installed on one 20-story tower. 

The project also includes two 30-story towers, at least ten 20-story towers and around three dozen 10-to-15-story apartment blocks of various designs. 

In a speech at the project’s opening ceremony in February, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signaled that builders would once again be expected to complete and open 10,000 homes in the Hwasong area by the end of 2022. However, he attached a timeline of “three years or so” to the overall project in the area, including “well over” the 10,000 homes slated for construction this year.

Last year’s 10,000-home project in the Songhwa area of Pyongyang and other top state-led construction projects missed their end-of-year deadlines amid economic difficulties, but this year’s challenges appear more severe.

The country has battled a COVID-19 outbreak since “late April” — the first time ever the virus has spread in North Korea, according to state media — that has required millions to quarantine at home. 

“Despite the rigorous difficulties which can be called as a great upheaval in our country since the founding of the DPRK, the construction for people is being pushed ahead with as planned,” the Rodong Sinmun reported on June 3, following Kim Jong Un’s orders not to allow the outbreak to disrupt major projects.

Edited by Arius Derr