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N. Korea building new housing districts in Pyongyang: report
By Tony Chang
SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is carrying out a major urban development project in Pyongyang with the goal of providing some 100,000 new houses by 2012, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper based in Tokyo reported Monday.
The year 2012 marks the birth centennial of the country's founder, Kim Il-sung, and the year when his son and current leader Kim Jong-il turns 70. Pyongyang has declared a goal of building a "great, prosperous and powerful" nation by then.
The Chosun Sinbo, which usually conveys Pyongyang's views, described the housing construction as an "unprecedented national project" and a "core project" in the country's campaign looking to 2012.
The paper reported that the North was in the process of building 65,000 new houses in the city's western district of Mangyeongdae, where Kim Il-sung's birth home is located, 15,000 houses in central Pyongyang and 20,000 houses along the railroad spanning between the southern district of Ryokpo and Ryongsong district in the capital's northern region.
Each home will be approximately 100 square meters in size, according to the report.
The North Korean capital, despite a strict control on the entry of people from rural areas, has reportedly been going through a major housing shortage. The paper said that the completion of the housing project will solve the problem plaguing the citizens of Pyongyang.
In the past, Pyongyang has built 50,000 new apartments each in the 1980s and the 1990s.
In 2001, North Korea sought to develop a satellite city of some 1 million households near the Mangyeongdae district, but failed due to the nation's economic woes.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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