Pyongyang, the capital city of the DPRK, has been spruced up as an ideological and cultural centre of the country and as a hub of Korean-style civilization.

Over the recent years a number of monumental edifices have been built in a new and peculiar way to add beauty to the city. In the course of this, unprecedented miracles have been performed in terms of transformational width and depth, architectural content and style, and speed and scale of construction.

The Central Cadres Training School of the Workers’ Party of Korea built as a world-class political school, and the Korean Revolution Museum, the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery, the Youth Movement Museum and other monumental structures—they all give a glimpse of the brilliant history, traditions and bright future of the country.

Years ago, modern streets and apartment houses were built in the city: to name a few, Unha Scientists Street, Wisong Scientists Residential District, apartment houses for lecturers of Kim Il Sung University and Kim Chaek University of Technology, Mirae Scientists Street and Ryomyong Street.

The Eighth Congress of the WPK in January 2021 unfolded a grand plan for building 50 000 flats in the city in the coming five years. According to the plan the appearance of downtown Pyongyang and urban districts of its suburban areas have changed and expanded beyond recognition.

The Pothong Riverside Terraced Houses District, Songhwa Street, Jonwi Street, Hwasong Street, Rimhung Street and other cradles of people’s happiness have been built as beautiful and modern urban districts with a perfect harmony of architectural formative and artistic qualities and advanced civilization to highlight a new life of the blooming socialist civilization.

The characteristic and modern buildings such as the Sci-Tech Complex, a temple of all-people learning, Chongnyu Health Complex, Chongnyu People’s Open-air Ice Rink, Rungna People’s Recreation Ground, Munsu Water Park and Pyongyang Taedonggang Fish Restaurant fully show the remarkable development of the capital.

The Pyongyang Teachers Training College, the Pyongyang Baby Home, the Pyongyang Orphanage, the primary and middle schools for orphans, the old people’s home, the workers’ hostels of the Pyongyang Kim Jong Suk Textile Mill and the Pyongyang Kim Jong Suk Silk Mill, the Mindulle Notebook Factory, the Pyongyang School Uniform Factory, the Pyongyang Schoolchildren’s Footwear Factory and others have been built according to the people-oriented policies of the state in the new era of prosperity of Pyongyang.

Many modern commercial service centres, research institutes and consumer goods production bases have been built to improve the living standards of citizens and their wellbeing.

They include the Okryu Children’s Hospital, the Breast Tumour Institute of the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital and the Ryugyong General Ophthalmic Hospital, the Mirim Riding Club, the terminal of Pyongyang International Airport and the large-scale Kangdong Combined Greenhouse Farm.

The eye-opening change in Pyongyang is not merely a success brought about with the passage of ten-odd years but a brilliant fruition born of the outstanding wisdom and wise guidance of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un who has the patriotic will to build the capital city of the DPRK into a world-class city in name and reality.

Ham Jong Hyon