North Korea appears to be augmenting a new nationwide prison construction project, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery, adding an X-shaped cell block layout to a facility accused of using forced labor to build weapons.

NK Pro has now exclusively identified 10 prisons that have seen active construction since late 2023, including two new sites detailed below and possibly more planned.

The nationwide project, which comes amid leader Kim Jong Un’s recent loyalty push and crackdown on ideological deviation, will result in more modern prison facilities, likely improving reportedly deadly living conditions but also surveillance and control capabilities. 

Signs have also appeared that Kim may be planning to formalize and partially open up about his prison system in line with other socialist states like China.

The activity comes after a DPRK official made a rare public admission at the U.N. last year about Kim’s crackdowns and even the use of public executions. State media has yet to comment on the construction project.

ADVANCING THE PROJECT

Renovations at three existing prisons as well as one brand new site have involved the construction of multi-story U-shaped cell blocks of similar designs, but authorities appear to be using a new X-shaped layout at a prison in Songgan County, which is located near arms factories that leader Kim Jong Un has visited numerous times in recent years. 

With construction first starting in Jan. 2025, the site is one of the newest incorporated into the nationwide project. The use of new designs suggests that authorities are either still researching and developing ideal layouts, or that local-level authorities have some autonomy in the process.

Defector testimony has claimed its inmates are forced to work at the nearby arms plants. They have called it the “Songgan Kyohwaso” or “Kyohwaso No. 6,” referring to a type of detention facility that housed mostly people accused of “ordinary” or non-political crimes in the past, though this could have changed.

A high-resolution Planet Labs image taken on April 23 showed foundations for the new layout taking shape, while medium-resolution imagery from the last week shows the mutli-story X-shaped building is in an advanced stage of construction.

The 14-acre (5.6-hectare) walled complex in the Changphyong-mal area of Songgan also features a new U-shaped building similar to those seen at other prison project sites, and an L-shaped building.

Construction has also advanced rapidly in recent months at four other prisons using the U-shaped designs. 

One is in Hamhung on the east coast near multiple important weapons factories that are helping Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; another is Sinuiju in the northwest near the Chinese border; and the third is in Chonnae north of the new Wonsan-Kalma mega beach resort. The fourth is a brand new prison in Hwangju south of the capital.

The Chonnae prison may be operational, but work still appears ongoing at the other three.

Rebuilt prisons of different designs may also be operational in eastern Sariwon and northern Pyongyang, while only minor construction has commenced so far in Kangdong east of the capital following dismantlement earlier this year.

MORE PRISONS IN THE MIX?

NK Pro has also identified new dismantlement efforts starting in March this year at a sprawling prison complex in Jungsan on the west coast, also referred to as Kyohwaso No. 11 or the Chungsan prison, as well as new construction at a smaller facility in Tongrim in the DPRK’s northwest.

Google Earth and Planet Labs imagery shows dismantlement and construction at seven of 14 individual walled compounds at the Jungsan site, each ranging from around 2.5 to 7.5 acres (1 to 3 ha). 

However, while some of the construction appears to involve new inmate housing structures, the work does not yet involve large U- or X-shaped cell blocks like those seen at many of the other identified project sites.

The walled facilities have also seen frequent reconfiguring and construction over recent decades, according to a 2020 report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), and the new activity appears roughly in line with this trend.

At the 3.8-acre (1.5 ha) walled prison in Tongrim, Planet Labs imagery shows that a building on the east end of the compound was removed in late 2023 and that new unidentified activity started in the same area in mid-June.

Further analysis of imagery in the coming months is required to assess whether the activity at the Jungsan and Tongrim prisons is directly connected to the larger nationwide project. 

Edited by Bryan Betts