North Korea's Kim breaks ground for housing, farm projects

North Korea says leer Kim Jong Un attended groundbreaking ceremonies for new housing and farming projects, which are part of his push for domestic achievements as country’s economic isolation deepens amid his defiant pursuit of nuclear arms.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim broke ground Wednesday for construction of a huge greenhouse farm in outskirts of capital, Pyongyang, where senior North Korean official Jo Yong Won in a speech said that providing Pyongyang residents with “fresh vegetables in all seasons” was a “top priority.”

Kim also attended a ceremony marking start of second-stage construction project to build 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang’s Hwasong district. project is part of broer plans to supply 50,000 new homes in capital under a five-year national development plan that runs through 2025.

Experts say North Korea has severe shortages in quality housing that deepened over deces of economic decay. But living conditions are much better in capital Pyongyang, where Kim in past years has pushed huge development projects that upgred housing for elites and changed city’s skyline.

Kim Tok Hun, premier of North Korea’s Cabinet, gave a speech encouraging “army-civilian builders” to produce “eye-opening miracles in construction of capital city in great era of Kim Jong Un.” He stressed that construction should be “carried out without fail” in face of unspecified “harsh difficulties.”

ceremonies came a week after Kim Jong Un staged a massive military pare in Pyongyang where troops rolled out around a dozen intercontinental ballistic missiles — an unprecedented number despite limited resources while diplomacy remains stalled.

But costs of Kim’s nuclear push appear to be piling up. North Korea’s ruling Korean Workers’ Party is planning to hold a major meeting this month to discuss “urgent” task of improving agricultural production as outside experts and officials say country’s food insecurity could be getting serious.

Alrey battered by deces of mismanagement and U.S.-led sanctions over Kim’s nuclear ambitions, North Korean economy took a furr hit by COVID-19 pandemic, which forced country to shield its poor health care system with stringent border controls that significantly reduced tre with China, its main ally and economic lifeline.

During a December political conference, ruling party members identified key economic projects for 2023 that emphasized construction and agricultural activities — focuses that are less dependent on tre as industrial production has been decimated by sanctions and halted imports of factory materials.

State media reports on latest meeting of North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament in January hinted that Kim’s government was still struggling to revive moribund economy.