North Korea has started a large-scale project to build better machines for manufacturing weapons, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery, soon after leader Kim Jong Un visited the site last month.

State media reported on May 7 that Kim inspected the Huichon Ryonha General Machine Plant in Jagang Province on an unspecified date, showing him with an artist’s rendering of a new factory building that would dwarf the main existing one — already one of the largest production halls in the country.

Kim said its construction would “guarantee the DPRK defense industry’s leap forward to become a world-level advanced industry,” producing “more intelligent, high-speed, precision and multi-functional machine-building equipment” for the munitions industry and other fields.

Former leader Kim Jong Il spearheaded work to make the factory the country’s top producer of computer numerical control (CNC) machines. Such machines are the world standard for efficiently and consistently crafting intricate parts for use in advanced weapons, as they are able to sculpt metals with pre-programmed computer precision.

Ryonha brand CNC machines have been spotted in recent years at multiple DPRK arms factories amid Kim’s wide-ranging weapons development push. 

Pyongyang may also seek to export CNC machines, as it has in the past, as a cheaper alternative for the competitive world arms market. 

Planet Labs imagery shows that demolition work in the path of the planned new building on the Huichon Ryonha grounds already started between May 4 and 7, right around Kim’s visit. Clearing continued through May 22, but more buildings still need to be removed before construction begins.

While it’s difficult to determine the precise size of the long, rectangular planned building, NK Pro analysis of the 3D rendering suggests it will cover 12 to 25 acres (5 to 10 hectares).

The rendering suggests that it will be over twice the size of the existing large production hall at the factory, which has a floor space of around 10 acres (4.2 hectares). This is possible if around a dozen more large buildings are demolished and if the edges of the adjacent mountainside are flattened to expand available land, but its true planned size may in fact be smaller than the artist’s rendering.

Only a few factory buildings in the country feature a single, uninterrupted production floor of a comparable but still smaller size, like the Taedonggang Battery Factory in the capital or the newly remodeled Kumsong Tractor Factory, but the new Huichon Ryonha facility may become the largest to boast an explicit military production function.

However, it will still pale in comparison to the size of factory buildings at numerous sites across the border in South Korea and other neighboring countries, which regularly cover over 30 acres.

Kim Jong Un previously visited the factory at least twice in 2024. The first was an unpublicized inspection in February that was later revealed in a propaganda slogan displayed on site. State media then reported on another visit in July.

Construction plans for the Huichon Ryonha factory appear to date back further, as a state TV documentary revealed that the DPRK leader reviewed plans for its “urgent modernization” in April 2023.

Meanwhile, Ri Yong, a top manager of the overarching Ryonha Machine Bureau (련하기계관리국, aka Ryonha Machinery Corporation), has continued to appear at major events like two recent warship launching ceremonies.

The Ryonha group also appears to be either leading medical equipment manufacturing or using such labels as cover for producing other weapons-related components. The Myohyangsan Medical Appliances Factory has built a hospital bed plant right next to the Huichon Ryonha factory, while Ri Yong previously appeared to guide the leader around the main Myohyangsan facility. 

Jo Myong Chol, the apparent Huichon Ryonha General Machine Plant manager who led Kim around the factory in May, also guided Kim around the Pyongyang Medical Oxygen Factory back in Sept. 2016.

Elsewhere in Huichon, Planet Labs imagery shows that a large statue in the center of Huichon depicting founding leader Kim Il Sung with an old weapons manufacturing machine was covered and possibly removed or rebuilt in early May. If removed, it could be tied to state efforts to downplay Kim Il Sung’s personality cult and elevate Kim Jong Un.

Work also appeared to wrap up earlier this year on a large new production hall at the Huichon Youth Electrical Complex where anti-aircraft missile systems have been produced.

Edited by Bryan Betts