North Korea is upgrading more facilities likely related to trade along its border with China, NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery shows, steps that suggest Pyongyang is preparing to expand cross-border exchange after three years of pandemic restrictions. 

Planet Labs satellite imagery shows new roofing work on a possible customs or import disinfection facility in Manpho at the end of February. Workers began constructing this facility years ago at the entrance to a cross-border road bridge that connects to the small Chinese city of Jian in the western border region.

Recent imagery also shows that workers have converted an exchange market at the eastern edge of the shared border into a likely import disinfection facility. It’s located at the foot of a road bridge connecting North Korea’s Rason special economic zone with China’s Quanhe Port and Hunchun City.

MANPHO FACILITY

Construction on the Manpho facility began in 2016. The multi-story building has four circular corner structures and two inner courtyards, forming the shape of a boxy number “8” measuring roughly 500 feet (150 meters) by 230 feet (70 meters).

Only a few sections of concrete framework were initially built until work resumed in mid-2020, soon after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Work then appeared to stall until June 2022, according to Planet Labs imagery. 

The installation of red roofing material indicative of the final stages of construction began in recent weeks, between Feb. 25 and March 1, and was still in progress as of March 8.

Roofing installation began at the end of February on the likely trade-related DPRK facility in Manpho adjacent to the border bridge with China | Images: Planet Labs, edited by NK Pro (If images do not load, please refresh page)

This comparison of high-resolution images taken in May 2022 and Feb. 2023 shows slight construction progress on the Manpho facility | Images: Planet Labs, edited by NK Pro (If images do not load, please refresh page)

Trade does not appear to have begun to flow across the border, and the much larger Chinese customs facility on the other end of the bridge appeared quiet through the first week of March.

Given its position as the closest North Korean structure to the border bridge, the red-roofed complex was likely at least originally intended as a trade processing and customs facility. 

It’s also possible that it will be another import disinfection and quarantine center, following the conversion of two other existing facilities into such centers and possibly a third in Rason more recently.

RASON FACILITY 

The Rason facility is a warehouse called the Wonjong International Market (원정국제시장). It was originally built in 2017, but workers began to install a new perimeter fence around it in late September last year, according to NK Pro analysis of Planet Labs imagery.

Images shared on Chinese social media also show that large letters spelling out the facility’s name at the entrance were also removed sometime last year, further indicating that its function has changed. 

The fence construction appears similar to those built around a nearby rail facility also in Rason but on the border with Russia in late 2021 and around Uiju Airport across from China’s Dandong earlier that year. Both of these have been confirmed to be disinfection and quarantine complexes servicing cross-border rail shipments.

North Korea remains one of the most paranoid and closed-off countries in the world when it comes to trusting established science around the low risks of COVID-19 spreading on surfaces, and has required imports to be sprayed and isolated for up to three months before being released. 

Satellite imagery has shown frequent vehicle activity and the movement of objects in recent months inside the Wonjong facility, and vehicles have appeared at the customs gate on the Chinese side of the border bridge. But cross-border truck activity does not appear to have reached pre-pandemic levels. 

China has also still yet to complete construction on a giant new customs complex nearby, which is set to replace their existing one. 

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency previously reported that a handful of trucks crossed from China to Rason via this bridge on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, according to local sources, and Japan’s Nikkei Asia later corroborated these reports. However, Yonhap reported that this truck activity was irregular as of mid-February. 

Both the Manpho and Rason facilities would be the first to service regular truck trade as opposed to rail trade if officially opened to cross-border traffic. 

The Uiju and Russian border disinfection centers both service trains, which allows North Korea to reduce the risk of infected persons crossing the border since a small crew, or even a single person, can bring in large amounts of goods.

DPRK authorities may still be delaying the resumption of regular truck trade since each vehicle requires at least one operator, increasing infection risks, but the close proximity of the two facilities to their respective border bridges makes them better candidates for a limited reopening to this kind of trade. 

North Korea otherwise is maintaining its complete prohibition on travelers entering the country and is keeping many other border crossings closed. 

Edited by Arius Derr