North Korea vision for a city of tomorrow

Following recent news about a city of tomorrow in Spain, North Korea, in its turn, decided to make it hot for the rest of the world and organized a pretentious opening ceremony of the new city of Samzhiyon. The North Korean authorities call it the model of modern civilization.

The new city is located near Mount Pektusan, which is considered sacred in North Korea (according to legend, near the mountain, in a secret partisan camp the farther of Kim Jong Un, was born), has only 2-3 km in diameter and can accommodate 4,000 families. There are more than 450 new apartment buildings, industrial and entertainment facilities with beautiful, clean facades, which is unusual for this country. In addition, the city has a ski slope and a stadium.

There should be little amazement that in a one-man government like this there were evidence that forced labor was used during the construction. Those people, who were forced to work on such projects, the local media enviably called “volunteers”.

It is unclear whether anyone has already moved to Samzhiyon, but this city will be a good instance for other cities, where the majority of population lives in poverty and destitution.

It was a tough period for North Korea and a real challenge to build the city under the burden of sanctions, resulting in the lack of resources and high-quality building materials.

We can only watch from the sidelines if there can be any further development or the new city will remain a silent monument and a stark landscape of true socialism.