Kaechon Hydroelectric Dam Under Construction

North Korea has struggled to solve its electricity problems for decades, particularly since the country lacks native supplies of heavy fuel oil. The handful of coal fueled power plants strain to supply large cities and industry and blackouts are common, even in the capital. North Korea does have a fairly abundant renewable resource, and that's water. Despite suffering from major floods and the occasional drought, the country does seem to be betting on (at least in part) hydroelectric power - which has the added benefit of flood control.

Over the past 10 years, dozens of large and small hydroelectric projects have been initiated. One can find small "micro" hydroelectric generating stations that are meant only to feed a village or factory scattered all over the country, and then there are the large-scale projects, like Huichon, that's expected to keep Pyongyang in lights.

There are also medium-scale hydroelectric projects being built. One such dam is located near Kaechon in South Pyongyan province (although it's across the border in North Pyongan). It is located less than 2 miles from Kaechon Airbase and 9 miles east of the Yongbyon Nuclear Reactor site.

Construction likely began around the end of 2013, although the earliest imagery available is April 2014. Based on the image below, the plant will have 3 electric generators.

--Jacob Bogle, 8/15/15

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Mapping Progress Update #6

It has been nearly a year since my last full update on my progress on mapping the whole of the country, and progress has been great.

A year ago, I had mapped 10,000 sq. miles, or 21.48% of the country and I had around 5,500 military, domestic, economic, and propaganda places marked. It took me around a year to get to that point (remembering of course that I wasn't doing this every single day, and I'm still not always able to work on this).

Today, I've mapped out 26,137 sq. miles (56.15%) of the country (which is 46,541 sq. mi. in size). Of that, 8,219 sq. mi. has been mapped just since the start of 2015. My productivity has greatly increased since I decided to set a completion date: Dec. 31, 2015. And that includes combining my finds with the extensive original work of NKeconomywatch and Google Earth user "Planeman_".

To finish this year, I need to map an avg. of 78 square miles a day. So far, I'm averaging 83. That places me 5 days ahead of schedule right now and puts me on target to finishing 20 days early by year's end. Of course, something could happen and my average rise or fall.

As noted in an earlier update, to help with effective mapping, I divided the country into sections covering (roughly) 25 square miles. This map shows each section that I have mapped. The elevation is set so that each dot is 5 miles in diameter, thus, mostly covering the areas I have fully mapped.

 

Click for larger view.

In terms of items marked: 18,657 total items; 3,221 military (inc. DMZ, Airports & Road Blocks), 4,140 monuments, and 11,103 domestic & economic locations. Here are the specific numbers for a few select items: 389 anti-aircraft batteries which represent about 1,900 individual guns, 327 communication/cell towers, 364 electrical substations, and 145 town markets. I've also mapped out hundreds of miles of new roads, main irrigation canals, coastal fences, and border fences.

Included under the "military" heading are, 461 additional places along the DMZ, 140 DMZ related road blocks, and 76 airports, heliports, and aviation test facilities (6 hadn't been located before).

I've also marked all 23 current and former border crossings, twenty of which connect with China. Plus, 159 key mountains & local geographic high points.

Here's a few images to give you an idea of what all I've mapped.

All 76 aviation facilities. Click for larger view.

Electrical Substations of North Pyongan Province. 

Cell towers of Pyongyang. 

North Hwanghae Province's Anti-Aircraft Artillery Sites.

The red dots represent HARTS (Hardened Artillery Sites) in South Hwanghae Province near the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. On Nov. 23, 2010, North Korea bombed the South Korean island with 170 shells & rockets. Four were killed and 19 injured.

---Jacob Bogle, 4/10/15
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Sajido Naval Base

Sajido is a small village near a point called "Kwakkot-ch'wi" on North Korea's western coast in North Pyongan Province. 

On Kwakkot point lies a harbor - Sajido Naval Base. The base wasn't marked by any other GE users and since public data on North Korea still lacks much in the way of place names I have simply named it after the nearest town of Sajido.

The base is located near a publicized land reclamation project dubbed the "Taegye-do Island Land Reclamation Project."[1][2]

Here is a large-scale image of the region (~4.9 x 4.1 miles).

Now we'll zoom in to the actual base.

You can see the seawall that has been built to act as a man-made harbor. The base extends for nearly the full width of this image which is 1.1 miles long and 1/2 miles wide.

This close-up shows two rows of hovercraft (20 in total) on land and a single ship. The four buildings are presumably storage/maintenance bays for the vessels. The hovercrafts are about 65 feet long.

Moving north there is a "battleship row" with 7 military vessels moored and what looks like a dredge (very bottom). The green area near the center of the image is a monument.

The two larger ships are about 126 feet long, the 3 smaller ones are 80' long (most likely patrol boats) and the 2 smallest ones are between 45-50 feet long. The dredge is around 128 feet long.

Finally, we have the main base facility.

You can see a number of ships on land, one in dry dock, and the bulk of the support buildings. Farther north is a number of additional buildings but they are hard to identify and separate from the civilian buildings in town so I haven't included them in any of the images. 

Sources:

1. Land reclamation, NK Economy Watch

2. Tidal land turns to arable land, Korean Central News Agency

--Jacob Bogle, 3/1/2013

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