North Korea is well-known for its restrictions on movement around the country. Cities, counties, and provinces all have check points, and movement between them requires government permits.
But then there are also the sprawling palaces and sensitive military areas that are blocked off from the rest of the country. Perhaps the most well-known are the 28.4 square kilometer Soviet-style closed city of Yongbyon and the 17-km-long Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site.
However, there are even more restricted districts that are unknown to the general public.
One such restricted district lies over 20 km to the northeast of Pyongyang's own walled government quarter.
Straddling the Ryongsong District in Pyongyang and southern Pyongsong, this secure area takes up nearly the whole Hapjang River valley, an area of 32.4 sq. km. - making it larger than the closed city of Yongbyon and 23 times larger than Pyongyang's government quarter.
Although the exact nature and history of this district isn't publicly known, I'd like to provide a rundown of the various sites within it to give those interested greater insight into how North Korea segregates large swathes of its territory and population from the rest and why.
The district includes at least ten military bases, a military academy, and a large factory complex. The area also holds the KPA Navy headquarters, a horse riding center, 17 villas and two state guest houses for members of the country's elite, and two livestock facilities.
The restricted district also includes numerous regular housing units for locals approved to live and work in the area and may have a population as high as 10,000.
The district isn't fully fenced but its boundaries can be defined by the mountains that surround the Hapjang River valley and the eight checkpoints/gates that control the road network into the district. These control points are supplemented by another five that exist within the district, plus multiple others that control entry into each point of interest (bases, livestock centers, etc.).
The headquarters covers approximately 174 hectares (430 acres). Renovations were carried out in 2013 and 2017.
The main road leads north to two large guesthouses and the equestrian center.
The Hapjang River feeds the Rimwon Reservoir next to the KPA Navy HQ. Nestled within the hills surrounding the reservoir are seventeen villas in two clusters as well as two guesthouses (or possibly banqueting facilities) on the western side.
Unattributed sources allege that the villas are for use by members of the North Korean Supreme People's Assembly, but I haven't been able to confirm that. However, multiple clusters of villas exist around Pyongyang, and some are known to be used according to government branches, such as the Party and military, as well as exclusive villas for members of the Kim family. So their use by SPA members is certainly possible.
The villas are not connected via road to either the guest houses or to the rest of the restricted district, and they are serviced by their own security. The two guesthouses or banqueting facilities, however, are connected directly to the district's wider road network.
(As an aside, in the northwestern corner of the district lies the grounds of the former Hapjang Villa [39.255694° 125.797615°]. Belonging to Kim Jong Un’s late step-grandmother Kim Song-ae, he had it demolished in 2024.)
An interesting addition to the district is the equestrian facility (39.214684° 125.835387°) that was constructed in 2020. One of over a dozen that now dot the DPRK landscape, this riding center is one of the few that also have riding trails to compliment the main riding track and stables with 5.3 km of trails through the forested hills.
North Korea began adding horse training and riding facilities at corps-level military installations in 2023 and even opened up civilian tracks in selected cities as well. Although equestrian activities have long been part of Kim family life and are used occasionally in propaganda displays, it remains unclear why the regime thought it necessary to expand the number of trained riders within the KPA (importing valuable horses along the way).
The details of this part of the district remain somewhat muddied as it involves around a century of history and industrial facilities with very little public information about them.
On the eastern edge of the district is a former Japanese colonial-era prison (39.221627° 125.849484°). At some point after the Korean War the prison was converted into an industrial site, with additional factory buildings built directly north of the tell-tale Ʞ-shaped prison building.
Then, in 1987-88, a larger factory was constructed 1.4 km to the west (39.226460° 125.834949°), with the two factories separated by a range of steep hills. But the two factories were connected to each other by a road tunnel and share a perimeter wall, indicating that the newer factory is likely an outgrowth of the older 'prison' factory. However, until recently, no one in the public sphere knew what was being produced at the new factory site.
The "new" factory's two main assembly halls have a combined 25,700 sq. meters (276,632 sq. ft.) of primary floor space, and thanks to work by NK News in cooperation with the New Tools Team at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation at the Middlebury Institute, the factory's purpose has been revealed.
Based on satellite imagery and state media reports going back to 2024, it has been shown that the factory is a production center for the Hwasong-11D three-axle TELs, with 45 chassis visible at the factory on January 10, 2024.
A large part of the factory's workforce would appear to come from the adjacent Hacha-dong neighborhood, which is located entirely within the restricted district and only has a single, winding dirt road connecting the neighborhood to the rest of Pyongsong.
Two kilometers north of the TEL factory is an unidentified military academy (39.244390° 125.830239°).
There are a lot of academy/university-looking complexes throughout North Korea, most of which have no identification. But this particular one can be confidently categorized as "non-civilian" thanks to a few visual signatures.
Landsat imagery shows that this location has had buildings and activity since at least 1984, but the current set of buildings was constructed in 2004-2006. Constructed at the same time was a small target range (39.245652° 125.840589°) - something a typical civilian university wouldn't have.
Following a 2018-2019 renovation of the main campus and nearby housing, the target range was greatly expanded in 2020 and now includes larger shooting ranges, an obstacle course, and possible barracks.
The exact nature of the academy doesn't appear to be public but, it could be used by KPA Army officers, the Navy, special operations forces, or even by the Supreme Guard Command given its proximity to multiple Kim family palaces.
Most facilities, of every sort, in North Korea have secondary roles in rearing or growing food either for domestic consumption or for export. Grade schools often raise rabbits, factory grounds get turned into cultivated plots, and even places like Punggye-ri have large tracts of land dedicated to growing food.
This district is no different and much of the flat land that isn't covered by a building or road is being cultivated. But there are also sites set aside for livestock such as poultry or swine. The largest is seen in the image above and covers over 100 hectares, although the actual area used for the longhouses and production is much smaller.
Whether this protein is produced for use by those in the district, for the general military, for the country's elite, or for export isn't known, but it is nonetheless a prime example of the wide range of industries that occur within KPA-controlled areas and shows how the nation's food supply issues touch every sphere of activity.
Restricted districts such as this one aren’t publicized and don’t even appear on domestic maps (which are already notoriously limited). Together with all of the other restrictions on movement between cities, near the coasts and borders, etc. North Korea might – for the average citizen – be more accurately viewed as an archipelago of countless islands rather than a unified territory one can move through.
While, in the end, I don’t believe these hidden districts play a major role in the overall national story, the paucity of information about them and their role in the national economy nonetheless places further limits on the usefulness of third-party reports on the status, growth, or decline of DPRK economic activity, resource distribution, and land use patterns. And it requires us to dig deeper into how North Korea organizes itself so that future reporting can be all the more accurate.
Uncovering this particularly large, restricted area was a byproduct of an ongoing AccessDPRK project aimed at determining the scope of land use by the Korean People’s Army. This is only one of several such districts, and I am happy to be able to shed some light on their existence.
I would like to thank my current Patreon supporters who help make AccessDPRK possible: Sarah Cowan, Donald Pearce, David M., Dylan D., HG, Joe Bishop-Henchman, Joel Parish, John Pike, Jonathan J., Kbechs87, Russ Johnson, Squadfan, Timberwolf, Yong H, and 덕형이.
