N. Korea says 50,000-unit housing project in Pyongyang reaches final stage

Residents posing for a photo after moving into new housing units in Pyongyang's Hwasong district, April 27. Courtesy of Korean Central News Agency

North Korea's high-profile party project to build 50,000 new housing units in Pyongyang has entered its final stage, state media reported Monday, as the country is set to hold a general party meeting this month.

"The fifth-stage construction of 10,000 housing units in the Hwasong district is being carried out in its finalizing stage," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing interior work currently under way on the structures.

The construction is the final leg of the five-year project to build a combined 50,000 housing units in Pyongyang, laid out by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the eighth congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in January 2021.

With the proclaimed aim of resolving housing issues for Pyongyang residents, the first batch of 10,000 units was built in the capital's Songsin and Songhwa districts in 2022 under the project, following by 40,000 units constructed in four stages in the northeastern Hwasong district, including the 10,000 now being completed.

The KCNA's emphasis on the project's near completion comes as North Korea accelerates efforts to accomplish the tasks set out at the 2021 party congress ahead of the upcoming ninth party congress.

At the upcoming congress, which South Korea's intelligence authorities expected to be held in February, Pyongyang is expected to present another five-year plan outlining its major policy stance, having adopted a five-year economic development plan at the 2021 session.

The Rodong Sinmun, the country's most-read newspaper, also reported Monday that the construction of a greenhouse farm in the country's northwestern city of Sinuiju will soon be completed, with the North having promoted the project as part of its much-publicized regional development drive.

In his latest reported inspection of a regional development project, Kim visited construction sites of several regional factories, including those in Sinyang and Pukchang, last week, instructing that they be inaugurated within December and touting them as a "gigantic revolution" aimed at improving people's livelihoods.