North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party led construction of over 25,000 new homes at rural farms across the country in 2024, according to NK Pro analysis of state media reporting, in the third year of leader Kim Jong Un’s “socialist fairyland” revival project aimed at increasing crop production. 

State media outlets like the Rodong Sinmun and Korean Central Television (KCTV) reported on moving-in ceremonies at new neighborhoods of duplexes and apartment blocks at 222 farms or rural villages last year.

It marks an increase of some 30% from 168 in 2023, and brings the total number of individual rural housing construction projects reported in state media to at least 434 since 2021.

Kim initiated the project in 2022, saying that improving living conditions for farmers will lead to stronger ideological obedience to the party and commitment to boosting agricultural output, thereby “solving the food problem of the country.”

The project has involved demolishing small neighborhoods of mostly duplexes in rural areas and building new apartment blocks or duplexes with “modern” designs in their place or nearby.

As part of Kim’s overall goal of “transforming” the “backward” countryside, the rural housing project addresses agricultural issues while his parallel “20×10” project seeks to improve industrial output in these areas.

NK Pro analysis suggests Kim likely believes that tangibly showing modernization progress to people from all corners of the country — the housing project has extended to even remote areas — will reduce discontent with his past failed policies and inspire new hope in cynical rural people.

It likely also serves as an opportunity for party authorities to reorganize systems around how they monitor and control local people, both physically and conceptually.

But the DPRK leader has also complained of poor construction design and quality of homes, which has been clearly visible even in some state media coverage, meaning the project has not been without problems.

Experts have also questioned the value of Kim’s rural development strategy, emphasizing the state’s underinvestment in agriculture and failure to address structural problems that discourage farmers from boosting output. 

Most reports on moving-in ceremonies in 2024 did not specify the number of households built, with most vaguely referring to “hundreds” or not mentioning any number at all, so it is difficult to count the exact number of new homes built in rural areas last year.

Taking the most often-used number in the previous year of 120 homes per ceremony, however, it appears that at least 26,640 homes were built across the 222 farms and villages.

State media has yet to make its own claims about total numbers for 2024, but a Rodong Sinmun report in early October said that 41,600 new homes had been built up to that point in 141 cities and counties.

The count of 141 is less than NK Pro’s count of 172 farms or villages named in state media between Feb. 10 and Oct. 4, but the DPRK’s total figure for new homes appears questionable. It would mean each project featured around 295 new homes, far more than the previous average of 120.

A claim in the Rodong Sinmun in late November that “more than 1,500 fairyland villages” were built over the last 3 years also appears inflated, likely counting separate clusters of homes at each of the 434 farms and villages where ceremonies took place.

In terms of the breakdown by province, South Hamgyong led the way by far with 34 moving-in ceremonies last year. In 2023, North Hwanghae Province led the way with 25.

There were 27 ceremonies in South Phyongan last year, 25 in South Hwanghae, 24 in North Hamgyong, 23 each in North Phyongan and North Hwanghae, 13 in Kangwon and 12 in Jagang. 

Like in 2023, Ryanggang Province — the most remote and sparsest populated in the country — was again at the bottom of the list of provinces with just 5 ceremonies. 

By specially administered city, 19 ceremonies took place in the capital Pyongyang and 10 in Nampho, while the smaller special cities of Rason and Kaesong saw 4 and 3, respectively.

The rural housing project construction in 2024 was in addition to “thousands” of homes built in North Phyongan, Jagang and Ryanggang provinces to replace those destroyed in late-July flooding. 

“Thousands” more were built as part of the Komdok mining town revival project, requiring construction of 25,000 homes between 2021 and 2025. Another 10,000 homes were also built in larger skyscrapers and apartment blocks in the Hwasong District of Pyongyang under a plan to build 50,000 in the capital in the same five-year period, but they are not expected to be completed until spring. 

Kim Jong Un has not attached a long-term deadline or specific geographical goal to the rural housing project, but at a Dec. 2021 party plenum, he called for solving food shortages “phase by phase” until 2031. 

The “20×10” project aims to build two to three light industry factories, a hospital or clinic, a cultural center and grain management center in every city or county seat by the end of 2033.

Below is a full list of new home ceremonies reported in state media in 2024: