Kim Jong-un catches ride on Russian-made limo, celebrates new homes constructed in Pyongyang

North Korea

Published: 17 Apr. 2024, 18:35

Kim Jong-un catches ride on Russian-made limo, celebrates new homes constructed in Pyongyang

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, is spotted getting out of a Russian-made Aurus Senat luxury limousine gifted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend a ceremony marking the completion of new homes in Pyongyang on Tuesday, in a screen capture from state-run Korean Central Television on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended a ceremony marking the completion of building another 10,000 new homes in Pyongyang, state media said Wednesday.

Kim attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for the completion of new apartments in the Hwasong district of Pyongyang as part of a housing project to build a combined 50,000 new homes in the capital by 2025, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Kim called for workers to attain the remaining goals for the five-year project to "turn the capital Pyongyang into a world-famous civilized city fit for the might of a powerful Korea in name and reality," according to the KCNA.

Kim has pushed for the project in apparent efforts to achieve economic feats and improve people's livelihoods in the face of economic hardships stemming from U.N sanctions.

North Korea has been under tightened U.N. sanctions due to its nuclear and missile programs, which call for, among other things, a ban on the country's exports of coal and other mineral resources to cut off North Korea's access to hard currency.

With the latest completion, North Korea has so far supplied 30,000 new homes in the Hwasong and Songhwa districts of Pyongyang since unveiling the project at a 2021 party meeting.

Yonhap