Kim orders speedier new town construction in Pyongyang

Published : Mar 16, 2017 - 09:37 Updated : Mar 16, 2017 - 11:43

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called on builders to finish construction for a new town in Pyongyang before the birthday of the country's late founder in April, Pyongyang's state media said Thursday.

North Korea is pumping up efforts to complete the construction of Ryomyong Street by April 15, the 105th birthday of Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the North's leader.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) tours the construction site of a new district named Ryomyong Street in Pyongyang. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

The country's young leader toured the construction site of Ryomyong Street again following his inspection in January, expressing satisfaction about the progress, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The North Korean leader said, "Only 30 days are left before the Day of the Sun," the KCNA reported, referring to the birthday of the late founder.

"(Kim) ardently called again upon all the builders to dash ahead like the wind towards the finish line and thus successfully build the street as a monumental edifice," in the era of the ruling Workers' Party, it added.

Ryomyong Street will house about 4,800 households and about 30 support facilities for residents in an around 900,000-square-meter area, said Minjok Tongshin, a US-based pro-North Korea website.

About $2.8 million has been injected into the project, it added.

North Korea's leader originally set the deadline for building Ryomyong Street at the end of 2016, but massive floods that hit the country's northeastern areas last year drained resources for the construction, causing delays.

Kim said in his New Year's message that the district "should be completed on the highest level."

Seoul's unification ministry earlier said North Korea's "show-off" project targets the privileged class in Pyongyang, not ordinary North Koreans.

Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to Seoul last year, said that a set of international sanctions put severe strain on Kim Jong-un's policy enforcement, including the construction of Ryomyong Street.
North Korea has been pressing its people to pay more taxes to make up for shortages of funds needed to build Ryomyong Street, Kim Heung-kwang, an anti-North Korea activist, said in February.

The WPK ordered factories, organizations and cooperative farms to pay some $1,000, an amount of the money needed to construct an apartment unit, said Kim, the head of the North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity. (Yonhap)