Welcome to Pyonghattan: Kim Jong-un puts North Korean progress on show with new skyline
Supreme leader wants the world to see his country is doing all right despite sanctions and isolation due to its nuclear weapons programme
Hoping to show the world his country is doing just fine despite sanctions and outside pressure over its nuclear weapons programme, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has put his soldier-builders to work on yet another major project – a series of apartments and high-rises that are once again changing the Pyongyang skyline.
The project is intended to show “the spirit of the DPRK standing up and keeping up with the world, despite all sorts of sanctions and pressure by the US imperialists and their followers”, and “the truth that the DPRK is able to be well-off in its own way and nothing is impossible for it to do”, state-media quoted Kim as saying when he ordered the beginning of construction in March.
Under giant red banners calling for “Mallima Speed” – a reference to a mythical winged horse that could travel tremendous distances at supernatural speed – his soldier-builders are now putting up the frames for each new floor at the reportedly breakneck pace of 14 hours to get it all done by the end of the year.
The project comes as North Korea is mobilised on its second “speed campaign” this year and follows the recent completion of “Future Street”, a cluster of high-rise apartments, office buildings and riverside parks dedicated to the nation’s scientists.