North Korean leader visits site of major housing project in Pyongyang
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited a major housing construction site nearing completion in Pyongyang, describing it as bringing a "new era of prosperity" to the capital, state media reported Sunday.
Kim visited the construction site of 10,000 apartments in the capital's Hwasong area Saturday -- the third phase of a four-part plan to build 40,000 units in the area, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"This is a significant development of enhancing the strategic function and position of the capital city," Kim was quoted as saying. "This is of great experimental significance in putting the new era of prosperity of Pyongyang on a higher level."
In 2021, North Korea unveiled a plan to build 50,000 new apartments in Pyongyang over five years and has so far completed the construction of 30,000 units. It began construction of the final 10,000 units last month.
Meanwhile, the dispatch said Kim instructed officials to prepare for a ceremony to mark the completion of the 10,000 apartments ahead of the Day of the Sun -- the birthday of the country's late founder Kim Il-sung on April 15 -- marking the reappearance of the term in North Korean state media.
The North celebrates its late founder's birthday as a major national holiday but had recently stopped using the term Day of the Sun, in an apparent effort to elevate the cult of personality of current leader Kim Jong-un. (Yonhap)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
16 hours ago
- Korea Herald
S. Korea-China-Japan cooperation crucial as ‘buffer' as Trump 2.0 roils Asia
APEC summit will serve as springboard for bolstering trilateral coordination, observers say Trilateral cooperation among South Korea, China and Japan has become more essential than ever as a buffer in Northeast Asia fraught with mounting volatility and uncertainty under US President Trump's second term, former high-ranking officials and experts said. Observers from the three countries held the view that Northeast Asia has become the central battleground in the intensifying great-power rivalry between the US and China during a forum hosted by the North-East Asia Research Foundation, a Seoul-based think tank, on Monday. Chung Duck-koo, former minister of trade, industry and energy, underscored that 'further strengthening trilateral relations among South Korea, China and Japan would be highly beneficial,' as Northeast Asia sits at the fault line between the North Korea–China–Russia bloc and South Korea–US–Japan cooperation. 'As a group that intersects both triangular frameworks, our cooperation could serve as a bridge for promoting shared prosperity and safety,' Chung, who serves as the founder and incumbent chair of the NEAR Foundation, said in his opening speech during the forum "The Trump 2.0 Era and its Implications on Northeast Asia." "Such efforts could help ease or neutralize tensions and mitigate sources of conflict in the region." Kim Sung-han, a former national security adviser in the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration, underscored that "the geopolitical confrontation between North Korea–China–Russia alignment and the ROK–US–Japan partnership is likely to intensify further." The ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, the official name of South Korea. Kim elucidated that the US has been doubling down on its strategic pivot to the Indo-Pacific region from Europe, setting the termination of the war in Ukraine in sight, while curtailing its military engagement in the Middle East. At the same time, China is expected to bolster its strategic partnership with Russia while reinvigorating ties with North Korea. 'In this context, trilateral cooperation among ROK, China and Japan becomes increasingly important to help ease regional tensions and prevent further polarization,' commented Kim, who currently serves as a professor of the Graduate School of International Studies at Korea University. Kim further explained, 'Trump 2.0's foreign policy is likely to push the Northeast Asian order toward a binary confrontation, which could weaken the strategic foundation for trilateral cooperation among ROK, China and Japan." 'Paradoxically, however, in the face of rising tensions, pragmatic and interest-based cooperation among those three countries may become even more necessary,' Kim said. 'As a result, Korea-China-Japan trilateral cooperation could serve as a 'diplomatic shock absorber' that helps ease geopolitical tensions and maintain regional equilibrium.' In his keynote address, Yun Byung-se, former foreign minister under the Park Geun-hye administration, said, 'Dialogue, exchanges and cooperation among South Korea, China and Japan are extremely valuable assets, amid the seismic geopolitical and geoeconomic shifts.' Observers also concurred that the North Korean nuclear challenge underscored the need for tighter Korea-China-Japan cooperation. Yun pointed out that 'North Korea will negotiate from its most advantageous strategic position since the Korean War' if a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un materializes. 'Depending on the result, another shock may come to the landscape of Northeast Asia,' Yun said. 'Prior coordination between South Korea and the US, and among South Korea, the US and Japan, as well as close consultation with China, will be necessary.' Voicing similar views, Hitoshi Tanaka, former deputy foreign minister in Japan, also underscored that 'especially on pressing issues such as North Korea's nuclear program, close trilateral coordination is imperative.' Observers said this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit — set for late October to early November in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province — will provide a valuable venue to advance trilateral cooperation. 'We understand China's sensitivity regarding Taiwan,' Tanaka said. 'However, just as APEC clearly separates political and security matters, including Taiwan in such frameworks should be considered to demonstrate that economic cooperation can transcend political divides.' The APEC summit will invite leaders from 21 countries in the Indo-Pacific region, including South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Taiwan. 'We hope that the leaders of our three countries — South Korea, China and Japan — will also take advantage of this opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue,' Chung of the NEAR Foundation said. 'Regardless of the challenges that may arise, South Korea, China and Japan should aim to be in the same boat and remain committed to discussing any issue in depth. In this regard, we must not make the mistake of allowing the past to hinder the future,' Chung added.
Korea Herald
16 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Who is Lee Jae-myung's pick for prime minister, Kim Min-seok?
Rep. Kim Min-seok, who was considered President Lee Jae-myung's "wingman" when they were in the Democratic Party of Korea leadership, has been nominated as his prime minister. As prime minister, Kim would steer Lee's Cabinet and serve as a key adviser. The position requires the National Assembly's confirmation. From as early as August 2024, Kim began raising alarms about former President Yoon Suk Yeol preparing to impose martial law. Kim had argued with conviction that Yoon was not only thinking about martial law, but taking concrete steps to go through with it. Kim was met by skepticism even within the Democratic Party, where a sizeable majority felt that the party was "taking things too far" with the martial law claims. Democratic Party lawmakers were seen distancing themselves from Kim's claims. When Yoon declared martial law on the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Kim's early warnings were revisited. Face of 'new pro-Lee' group Rep. Kim Min-seok, a former star politician who made a stunning return to the spotlight under Lee's Democratic Party, has been at the center of the new pro-Lee Jae-myung group. When Kim ran for a seat on the Democratic Party's supreme council last August, it soon became apparent that he was Lee's preferred choice to serve in the party's top decision-making body, a coveted and prestigious spot. Youngest lawmaker of his time to be elected Kim, the youngest in the batch of lawmakers elected in the 1996 general election, stepped into the limelight as soon as he entered politics. As a young politician, Kim served as chief secretary to former President Kim Dae-jung, when he was the leader of the Democratic Party. Jailed for occupying US-owned building in Seoul Kim was one of some 70 university students to occupy the US Cultural Center near the US Embassy in Seoul in May 1985 in an unarmed protest. Recalling the protest, Kim said in an interview with a local broadcaster in Gwangju on Oct. 12, 2024, that he was one of the first to raise suspicions that the US might have been behind the "massacre in Gwangju." Kim was referring to the series of pro-democracy protests in May 1980 in Gwangju against the then-government under Chun Doo-hwan, a military dictator. In the interview, Kim said that when he was the president of the student council at Seoul National University, he called for "uncovering the truths about the possible US intervention in the Gwangju massacre." "I said something on that scale (in Gwangju) would not have been possible without acquiescence from the US. That's what the US Cultural Center incident is about," Kim said. "It marked the first instance of getting what happened in Gwangju a recognition outside Korea." Kim served two years and eight months in jail for violating the laws on public demonstrations at the time. arin@
Korea Herald
17 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Luxury for pets? Shallow pool at presidential residence raises questions
A liberal lawmaker's revelation of a shallow pool inside the presidential residence in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, has raised speculation that disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol may have built a swimming pool for the first couple's pets when he moved in. This aligns with ongoing suspicion by the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, which became the country's ruling party with President Lee Jae-myung's election win, about the excessive use of water inside the official residence. Rep. Kim Byoung-joo said in the party's supreme council meeting Monday that the speculation that the pool was used for pets, not humans, is gaining ground. "I've looked around the space inside the official residence of the president, and a pool grabbed my attention," said Kim, who was one of the ruling party lawmakers invited to visit the official residence on Saturday. "We should closely examine whether the Yoons installed facilities for personal use with taxpayers' money after moving into the official residence, where no one can monitor how the money is being spent," the two-term lawmaker Kim also said, adding that Yoon and his wife are suspected of having installed a cat tower worth 5 million won ($3,680). Before President Lee and his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, took over the space as their official residence, Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, were the first South Korean presidential couple to have chosen to use a building in the Seoul neighborhood of Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, formerly a residence for the foreign minister, as the presidential residence. The Yoon couple kept six dogs and five cats there until a week after Yoon was removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April amid the political crisis caused by his attempted self-coup. The pool -- estimated to be 5 meters long and 2 meters wide, with a shallow end about 50 centimeters deep -- recently grabbed media attention as four-term Democratic Party lawmaker Rep. Park Hong-keun revealed a photo of the shallow pool inside the residence. Citing water bills it had obtained, local newspaper Hankyoreh revealed in late May that water usage at the residence began to skyrocket from the summer of 2023, rising from 972 tons during the April-May period to 1,622 tons during the June-July period. Water consumption peaked at 2,051 tons during the August-September period in 2024. A representative of former president Yoon was quoted by Yonhap on Monday as saying that the speculation is not true and that the pool was built for use in landscaping a few months before United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Seoul in October 2023. According to Rep. Kim Young-hwan of the liberal party, the Yoon couple's use of water amounted to 228 tons in the week between Yoon's removal from office and his departure from the home.
