Not everything is missiles or major projects, sometimes small but interesting things occur in North Korea, and I would like to share one of those interesting things going on in the border city of Kaesong.
Kaesong is one of the historic capitals of Korea and it's located in a hilly region at the foot of the Ahobiryong Mountains. This means that there's very little flat ground for agriculture, and cultivated land often has to extend up the slopes of hillsides.
Hilly agricultural area on the outskirts of Kaesong, March 2021.
The work began in late 2023 and the leveling process was largely done by April 2024, and by August 2024 (the latest Google Earth image) seven buildings had been constructed. This is enough to determine that the site was created for agricultural purposes. About 85% of the land is available for cultivation with the remainder being part of the processing facilities.
New agricultural complex after construction, August 2024.
A similar thing happens inadvertently when small reservoirs (usually for local irrigation) silt up - self levelling in the process - and are no longer able to hold water. The site is then converted into small fields and makes use of all of the soil that washed into the area. But these aren't made purposefully and are usually only a few hectares in size.
Current imagery doesn't show a stable retaining wall around the site, and some small areas have already been eroded by rainfall. Without a retaining wall to support the platform, its edges will continue to be attacked by erosion and the usable portion will decrease in size, with soil runoff washing into nearby fields.
Outside of coastal land reclamation projects, this is one of the largest such landscaping projects in recent years. Although this process technically reduces the overall land area available (as three-dimensional hills provide more surface area than a flat plain), filling in the area enables broader use and control of the land, and it will likely provide greater benefit than the original use of the site.
I would like to thank my current Patreon supporters who help make AccessDPRK possible: Dylan D., David Malik, Raymond Ha, and Yong H.
--Jacob Bogle, January 18, 2025
