As a result of priority being given to the

development of Ryomyong Street (Kim Jong Un’s recently-announced legacy

project) in Pyongyang, construction on a number of new apartment buildings in

provincial areas has ground to a halt. This is particularly true in Hoeryong,

North Hamgyong Province, where a project to erect homes in Yokjon-dong as part

of an idolization campaign for Kim Jong Il’s wife Kim Jong Suk in 2010 is still

far from complete, Daily NK has learned.

“It

has been five years since they tore down the unsightly homes that used to be

around Yokjon-dong, but no further progress has been made to this day,” a

source from North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on June 28. “The city

clean-up was launched as part of the Kim Jong Suk idolization campaign in 2010,

but in the end, the only real outcome was that some poor residents lost their

homes.”

“The residents were kicked out onto the

streets overnight, and they ended up losing their houses to the whim of the

state,” she said, adding that while there have been rumors that new homes were

to be completed by 2017, “almost no one believes that.”

Additional sources in North Hamgyong Province confirmed this development.

This has led many residents to believe

progress on such projects is only made possible when leader Kim Jong Un

personally takes interest. As the state pushes to complete the Ryomyong project

within one year, questions and complaints of why little has changed in Hoeryong

over the past six years are surfacing.

Instead, the state earlier this year

authorized the Yokjon-dong project to be completed by designated individuals.

Facing the unsavory option of halting an idolization project, which could

rattle the state’s propaganda efforts, it appears that the authorities came up

with a different solution, the source surmised.

“They

need it to be built, but the state can’t do it, so they’ve put wealthy

individuals at the helm of it,” the source explained. “To encourage more people

with money to take part, they even handed down an order permitting project

backers to pocket 50 percent of the funds, provided the other half goes back to

the state.”

Piecemeal construction efforts resumed in

mid-March following an inflow of raw materials and daily labor hires, all under

the purview of members of the donju (the new monied class).

The state is also using the unfinished

project to make some money on the side by selling partially completed

structures to the donju, the source explained, noting, “If only the first

floor of a structure has been completed, they sell it for 8,000 RMB (10 mil.

KPW), and the asking price for two floors is 20,000 RMB (26 mil. KPW).”

According to the source, onlookers in the

area watching the progression of these developments are noting an increasingly

true and irrevocable trend in North Korea: the people are propping up the

nation, rather than the other way around.