The past five years have witnessed an unprecedented housing boom in Pyongyang, the capital city of the DPRK.

The Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in January 2021 adopted it as a major policy to build 50 000 flats, or 10 000 a year, in the city in five years.

According to the policy, the groundbreaking ceremony of building the first 10 000 flats was held in March that year, followed by a similar event with a blasting every year. The annual project always ended in the arrival of house-moving season in every April from 2022.

Amid the five-year housing construction campaign Songhwa Street, Hwasong Street, Rimhung Street, Jonwi Street, the Pothong Riverside Terraced Houses District and the residential district in the Taephyong area were built with high-rise and super-high-rise apartment blocks, educational and commercial facilities, neighbourhood-serving amenities and other public buildings in perfect harmony. The number of dwelling houses built in the period far exceeds 50 000 flats.

It is a long-cherished desire of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un to transform the capital city and provide the citizens with more stable and cultured living conditions.

Every year he attended the groundbreaking ceremony proclaiming the construction of a new street to give an inspiring and rallying speech, dig the first spadeful of earth and press the button for blasting.

He went over numerous layout plans including at least 1 000 ones for Songhwa Street and over 1 630 ones for the first-stage housing construction in the Hwasong area.

In April last year he inspected the service facilities in the Hwasong area’s third-stage district nearing completion. During the tour he repeatedly urged the relevant units to make full preparations for operating them as they are creations that had been planned by the Party for the rising generations and other people and built with much care.

Finally, amid a new construction legend being created, the Hwasong area has revealed its appearance as a full-fledged administrative district and a hub and model that has political, economic and cultural functions and can lead the other regions in the capital city to high civilization.

At the inauguration ceremony of the 10 000 flats at the third stage in the Hwasong area in April last year, he met some workers and senior citizens who would settle in the new houses and wished them wellbeing, saying that seeing the citizens full of emotions and delight that day made him more firmly determined to take more jobs for the people upon himself.

The capital city construction continues under the far-reaching plan and wise leadership of Kim Jong Un who intends to provide the citizens of the capital city with full conditions under which they can lead a civilized and happy life without any inconvenience.

Jo Son Hyok