Kim's 116-km-Long Palace Highway

Access to the various palaces and villas around the country is provided by relatively short runs of roadway - a few kilometers or so - coming off of the local road network. But there is also a highway that runs nearly the entire length of a province that is dedicated to providing transportation between two palaces: Changsong and Hyangsan. 

Map of the overall system, with the palace highway in white and National Highway 65 in black.

Starting in the early 1990s, a 116 km-long and tree-lined highway was constructed over the course of about three years. 

The highway begins at National Highway 65, just south of the town of Hyangsan. From there, it goes west, winding its way through forested hills and low mountains, until it reaches the Changsong Palace complex on the Chinese border. The villas at Hyangsan are accessible from NH65 and are approximately 20 km from the on-ramp to the palace highway.

Unlike civilian roads, the highway is only sparsely connected to local road networks with intersections. I was able to locate a total of 14 intersections, but several of them are actually part of the palace highway to enable Kim's motorcade to bypass tunnels in the event one collapses or is otherwise blocked. And at least one intersection is simply for a small access road to a military base. 

The palace highway cut through an original local road in multiple spots (such as imaged here), rendering it useless for long distance travel.

What also became apparent while looking for intersections, is that the highway was built over the path an older road which connected the northern parts of North Pyongan Province. Now, that older road is highly fragmented, with parts being completely disused. And the locals are largely left with winding dirt paths instead of a paved highway. 

Obong-ri Leadership Train Station.

The palace highway is also connected to the Kim's leadership rail network through another road that leads from the Obong-ri Leadership Train Station (40.305346° 125.205669°), north of the town of Taegwan. The station itself was constructed ca. 1990-91 and a road leads from the station and connects to the main highway 12 km away.

The Obong-ri Leadership Station is unique among the two dozen or so other leadership train stations because it also contains an underground support facility.

It's impossible to go anywhere in North Korea and not be near some kind of military installation, but as an aside, I do think it's worth noting that the highway runs within 5 km of the Unsal MOUT (military operations on urbanized terrain) training complex which is the largest in the country, two other large bases, and the Taegwan Ballistic Missile Base.

Changsong Runway (built ca. 2017).

In light of Kim Jong Un's penchant for flying and building runways at his favored palaces, one might ask why the highway was built at all when Kim Jong Il could have simply opted to fly, like Kim Jong Un has. Well, Kim Jong Il was terrified of flying. So, he only ever took trains and motorcades; flying only when absolutely necessary (the last time I'm aware of a flight was back in 1965).

And so, it makes a lot of sense that he would have invested in having a dedicated road built to connect two of the Kim's most enjoyed getaways. 

Since Kim Jong Un does seem to prefer to fly, with a runway at Changsong and helipads at both Changsong and Hyangsan, it is unclear whether or not the highway plays the same role as it did during his father's life. Occasionally, some of the intersections appear to be blocked off, and there aren't examples of normal traffic flow. So the highway is still restricted, but it may be getting a lot less use than in the past.

The highway is yet another example of the Kim family treating the resources of North Korea as their own personal property by destroying civilian infrastructure in order to build a private road that will have used a tremendous amount of resources that could have otherwise been used to help the people.

I would like to thank my current Patreon supporters who help make all of this possible: Alex Kleinman, David M., Amanda Oh, Donald Pierce, Dylan D, Joe Bishop-Henchman, Jonathan J, Joel Parish, John Pike, Kbechs87, Russ Johnson, Yong H.

--Jacob Bogle, 6/9/2024

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North Korea by the Numbers

Phase II of the #AccessDPRK Mapping Project was published on March 5, 2017, but simply knowing where everything is doesn't make understanding the full picture much easier - especially when considering there's over 50,000 places marked. So I've put together these basic charts showing the total number of items per division (monuments, military, and domestic), the total items per province, and the total number of items within each type mapped (AAA sites, elite compounds, dams, communication centers, schools, etc.).

I'd like to point out that the overall figures here will differ slightly form the ones listed in the March 5th publication article. All told, there are some 600 individual sub-folders I have to keep track of and the resulting numbers take up 24 pages; minor mistakes happen. A couple numbers were inverted, and a few others were slightly off, however the overall discrepancies are very minor when compared with the whole. After making those needed corrections, the information below should be considered as authoritative as it will get with regards to the project.

The following charts (monuments, military, and domestic) represents the most detailed map of North Korea ever released to the public.

Many monuments are clustered closely together, making marking each one individually impractical. Instead, some markers are placed next to a group of monuments (2-4 generally), so while Pyongyang may have 1,049 markers on the map, those markers represent 1,230 individual monuments.

It's important to note, for those unfamiliar with the project, that the numbers below represent the numbers within the various folders by those names. There will be some items where there will only be one or two places within a province - those didn't necessitate their own folders. In such cases, they're often located in the "un-categorized" folder. An example of this is military training centers and military factories. Just about every province has at least one, but only a few have a folder dedicated to them.  A similar situation exists within the domestic file; bunkers, water towers, jails, and others may or may not have their own folder, but they will all be mapped.

While the purpose of this project is to map every one of a particular item, there are some items that I did not intend on mapping each and every one of, such as "firing positions". These trenches and prepared (but empty) gun positions cover the country and number in the thousands. In many cases it's also difficult to determine whether or not something was just a leftover temporary fortification from the Korean War or is part of the country's current defense structure (which does include having trenches in just about every available space). Additionally, the "radar" count is predominantly stand-alone radar sites, not the numerous smaller radars that accompany permanent artillery positions; although some of those are mapped as well. "Gates" are only mapped when they help define the boundaries of an area or are large - there's no real need to map every single gate at every single military site.

With the exception of a few items: canals, signs, factories and farming (to a degree), mountaintop sites, gates, and water supply, I have tried to be as comprehensive as possible in mapping each and every one of the other sites. Regarding the number of factories and farming/agricultural facilities, I focused on only mapping the larger sites, while also mapping some smaller agricultural facilities (like wheat threshing sites) to provide examples of what those numerous places look like. 

In short, the map contains 8,865 monument markers (representing 9,896 individual monuments), 9,594 military sites, and 35,252 domestic and economic sites for a total of 53,711 placemarks. There are also hundreds of fences and other things outlined in the map, but those aren't included in the counts as the places fenced in have already been accounted for.

#AccessDPRK will occasionally be updated to provide greater accuracy as new information comes in, fixing any unintentional errors, and adding more details.

--Jacob Bogle 7/4/17
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Phase 1 Map Complete!

AccessDPRK Phase I Release

Three and a half years ago I embarked on the ambitious project of mapping the whole of North Korea; a project called "AccessDPRK". I have always had a fascination with authoritarian regimes and for some reason my specific interest in North Korea began to grow a little over three years ago. I also have had a deep love of maps and geography since I was a very young child.

As my interests piqued, I started using Google Earth to look at North Korea. What I found were informative “community placemarks” marking the location of a monument or military site. I looked into who had created those placemarks, which seemed to cover the entire country, and found that they were part of a project called “North Korea Uncovered”. Created over the course of two years (2007-09), by George Mason doctoral candidate Curtis Melvin and a few volunteers, the project created the most comprehensive map of the country to-date. It included thousands of placemarks (approx. 9,000) – monuments, factories, palaces, artillery batteries, ancient tombs, and so much more. There was also another person, a Google Earth user known only as “Planeman_”, who created a map of supposedly all the artillery sites in North Korea.

However, as I explored these large files, I quickly discovered that there were massive holes in the data. While they marked some locations of each general type of item, the resulting creation was far from truly comprehensive. For some reason this offended me (in a lighthearted way), and since I am slightly obsessive and had an inherent interest in the country, I decided to take it upon myself to make the most comprehensive (at its fullest meaning) map of North Korea any private citizen has ever made by going and marking all of the locations not marked in Melvin’s project.

Once completed, I would release the information in the form of a Google Earth file to the public via my website, blog, and the Google Earth Forum. The goal being to expose the entirety of country to the world. To show people not just how the physical infrastructure of the nation is laid out (like power plants), but to also give a glimpse of daily life by having marketplaces, parks, as well as historical locations lost to Western knowledge, and much, much more. After the completion of “Phase I”, I also intend to review Curtis Melvin’s file and make any necessary corrections to it (since it is now six years old) and combine the two projects into a single “master file”. Little did I know what this full endeavor would require.

On Nov. 28, 2015, I finished the initial mapping phase of my project. After three years, over a thousand hours of active mapping work, and delving into thousands of pages worth of material to assist in creating this map, I now have seen every square mile of the country – indeed every home. The resulting Google Earth file is nearly 3 times the size of Melvin’s and contains 28,164 additional placemarks.

The file is divided according to each of North Korea’s primary administrative regions. Each is then further divided into 3 main categories: Military, Monuments, and Domestic. The Military and Domestic categories are subdivided into several sub-categories, such has anti-aircraft artillery sites, military bases, naval sites, and on the domestic side, dams, electrical substations, schools, factories, etc. All told, there are over 50 subcategories. Beyond those province specific folders, there’s are folders exclusively dedicated to the Demilitarized Zone, the country’s airports, historic places, etc.

One reason why this has taken so long is that as I would go around the country, I would find new categories of places that were numerous enough to have a national impact, like irrigation pumping stations and radar sites. So as I would add these new categories, I would have to go back an re-map formerly "completed" areas. 

The ultimate end of this project is not yet known. Like the development of the Internet, I’m not fully aware of the possibilities that can arise once people start mining the data. You could create a comprehensive map of North Korea’s electrical grid, you could discover their current defensive military strategies and find holes in their air defense system, you could work out how their internal security system is integrated across various transportation modes, and I’m sure many other things.

In addition to mapping, I’ve also written dozens of posts for this blog as well as 6 Wikipedia articles which have been read a combined 400,000 times and translated into multiple languages.

My main wish is that this can be used to help the world see that North Koreans are normal human beings who have been held hostage by their government. And that this provides some insight into how that government works to further the work of others in opening up North Korea, and one-day help bring North Korea into the 21^st century with a respect for freedom.

Phase II is already underway, and I have marked over 5,000 new places thus far. These include public schools, universities, museums, theaters, town halls, and other "buildings of interest". This is going to take some time to complete, but I'm hoping to have everything (including the "master file") finished and ready to be published by the end of the year, if not sooner. 

Here are a few specific item counts:

Anti-aircraft artillery batteries: 587    Hardened Artillery Sites: 626    Military bases: 938    Monuments: 6,720   Dams: 1,169   Communication towers: 747   Electrical substations: 736
Factories: 470    Marketplaces: 225    Ancient sites: 112

Get the File!

If you want to discuss the project on social media, please use the hashtag #AccessDPRK either on Twitter or Facebook. I welcome comments and suggestions, as well as new information.

To access the Phase I Google Earth file, you can either visit my file archive here and click the download button for "AccessDPRK Phase I_Finish_V1-March-5-2016.kmz" or download it directly by clicking this link. To view the file you must have Google Earth on your computer/device. NOTE: this is a large file (over 28,000 items). For some computers Google Earth might freeze or crash if you try to have every province open at once. Just go through them one by one if you're unsure. 

All Google Earth KMZ files relating to this mapping project are hosted on my Google Site https://sites.google.com/site/mymappingprojects/access-north-korea

-- Jacob Bogle, 3/5/2016

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Kangdong Residence

Kangdong Residence is a summer retreat and the secondary main residence of the leaders of North Korea. It is located about 19 miles from downtown Pyongyang near the border with South Pyongan Province and includes multiple houses, pools, horse tracks, a dedicated rail line, security barracks and more. Near Kangdong are two other elite residential compounds which seem to be satellite residences for other members of North Korea's inner circle. The main compound encompasses an area greater than 1.5 square miles. Between 2006-2011 several improvements and additions have been constructed (such as the trail station and an underground entrance).

Like all official residences (there are more than a dozen), security is tight. Kangdong airfield is nearby and the compound is surrounded on two sides with multiple anti-aircraft artillery sites.

You can get the full KMZ file of this compound for Google Earth here.

(click to view larger)

The above image is a large view showing everything. The main compound is off-center to the right, the dedicated rail line is in green (with another line being built [lighter color] which goes to 2 unknown facilities), the anti-aircraft artillery sites are marked with the red "A-drop" icon and the yellow & red lines are fences. 

Below, gives a less cluttered look of the defensive positions with Kim Jong-un's residence marked.

Like all official compounds, the area is ringed with successive fences. Some are basic and others are electrified with multi-layered walls and firing positions (along with a vast network of foot paths).

The purple line marks out the main walls and surrounds the primary residences. Red denotes an outer "inner" wall, yellow is the outermost fence, and green marks out other basic walls surrounding various buildings.

Here is a close-up of the main residential section. There are 19-20 homes and you can see the wide fence/wall system surrounding the area.

Here is a larger view of the main compound. 

Again, with fences showing and some places marked.

As I said earlier, there have been some additions. This is an image from 2004 showing the main residential compound, you'll notice the house I marked as possibly Kim Jong-un's isn't there and the horse track is different. There is imagery from 2006 without the additions but it was taken during winter and isn't as clear.

And the newly built train station.

Leading south from the train station is a road and bridge which crosses the Taedong River. Once you cross the river you come to a gate. This gate serves as one of many, but it is one of the main entrances. If you follow the northern route (take a left if you're on the road) you will end up at the main complex. If you take the road in the left of this image you will get to the first "satellite" compound (which is pictured further below).

This is a side-by-side before & after image of the underground entrance. It goes beneath the hill the new palace was built upon. The left-side image is from 2004, the right is 2011.

Scattered around the complex are storage bunkers. Based on my understanding they're used to store fuel. However, some could be used to store anything and one or two may be large enough to be used as some kind of emergency bunker in the event of a war or attack.

A close-up. The rounded areas are the actual bunkers and it has a maintenance shed nearby.

There is also a very odd and very large area next to the horse tracks which covers the floor of some small valleys between hills. It is made up of hundreds (if not more) of these rectangular structures. Each are aligned side-by-side 10 or 12 feet apart. The whole area covers more than 230,000 square feet based on my calculations. I have no idea what they are, nor does anyone else I know.

Here are the other two smaller "satellite" compounds.

And finally, a side track is being constructed off the main train track. It goes south and ends at two sets of newly constructed buildings.

Here is the area in 2010 (track path is marked).

And the facilities as seen in the latest available imagery (2011).

I hope you enjoyed this little trip around Kim Jong-un's backyard.

--Jacob Bogle, 8/22/2013
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Pyongyang Palace and Update

First, I have set up a dedicated "Google Site" to host my KMZ files. This way I don't have to wait for moderators to approve them and can easily publish updated versions. The following areas have been completed:

Rason Special City
The Demilitarized Zone
Pyongyang (city and district)
Ryanggang District
Ryongsong Residence

You can find them all here https://sites.google.com/site/mynorthkorea/files

(NOTE: the above areas have been substantially updated since this post was published. The new files will all be released sometime around Dec. 2015 and early 2016. Please check newer blog posts for additional updates.)

Now, I'd like to introduce you to the Ryongsong Residence (also known as "Residence No. 55"); the main palace compound of the Kim family.

Located 7.5 miles from Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, the compound grounds total between 5 to 7 square miles (depending on which areas you include). You can find it by using these coordinates 39° 6′ 58.96″ N, 125° 48′ 20.94″ E

Originally built in 1983 by Kim Il-sung, the compound is heavily defended, contains multiple houses (for the Kim family and ruling elite), man-made lakes, a private train station, is supplied power via 3 (known) substations, and much more. Outside the complex lies several anti-aircraft artillery sites and within are numerous underground facilities aimed at keeping the military functioning in the event of a nuclear war. It is also rumored that there are minefields in and around the compound, but I have not been able to verify their locations.

This gives you the location of the complex in relation to Pyongyang proper and the main airport. This image also shows the outline of the main outer and internal fences. As always, simply click on an image for a larger view.

Here is the area without any markings:

A up-close image of the fences. Red is the outer fence, purple is the main fence which is actually several electrified fences, walls, firing positions, etc. which encircle the compound as a thick fortified band.

The complex is also further divided by multiple internal fences (yellow). These fences often surround high priority areas, like the official residence of Kim Jung-un.

There are other fences and walls inside the complex which usually surround various buildings, greenhouses, barracks, etc. I have not marked those as they are difficult to fully discern and are rather numerous.

This shows you the location of the defensive ring around the compound which includes 15 AAA sites and 1 HARTS (hardened artillery site) position. These are only the ones closest to the complex, if you were to zoom out there would be more and more of them which are a part of Pyongyang's overall defensive network.

Here is a map of the multiple guardhouses and gates. There are also at least 2 berms (denoted by the square icon) which would prevent tanks from being able to rush certain areas.

This close-up gives you a better understanding of where the main residences are located and the layout of the internal fencing system. The blue circle denotes a bunker.

Here you can see the main fence design as it snakes across the image:

The private train station:

The location of the 3 substations. It is possible that there are underground power supplies but obviously, you can't see them from the air.

Here is an example of a livestock area within the compound (probably chickens or pigs). The compound, like a small city, is surrounded by agricultural, livestock, and military units. The building to the right is one of the substations.

This shows you some of the bunkers and underground facilities.

The Kim family have long held a fascination with horses and so, they have their own horse track. You'll notice the single, small viewing stand.

The main horse arena with stables:

Some of the smaller residences:

These 2 buildings are the largest single residential structures that have been on the property.

Here we have the main residence of the Kim family. The man-made lakes are a staple of the many official residences scattered throughout the nation. The distinctive geometric walkways over the lakes are likewise a mainstay of the palaces.

And now we get to see a bit of fun, a pool with a rather wild looking water slide:

Over the years the complex has undergone many changes and since 2009 there have been a number of them. The structures below were built between April 2009 and October 2010. These are located immediately adjacent to the livestock area and occupy the field to the center-bottom of the image I used for that site.

A number of homes were destroyed between April and September 2011, and after the death of Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un ordered the destruction of many (but not all) of his father's palaces and villas, as well as those homes belonging to those who did not show proper loyalty to Jong-un after his rise to power. The demolished homes have their approximate date of demolition, two of which may be candidates for Jong-un's demo project.

This large residence was demolished after the death of Kim Jong-il. You'll notice that it is one of the larger homes I showed you earlier.

The money spent to build and maintain this complex, along with all the others, cannot fully be ascertained. But given the fact that anywhere from 1-44% of the nation's economy is spent solely on the cult of personality that pervades North Korea, one can suspect that the finances used for these palaces are placed at a far higher priority than that of the starving and tortured average North Korean.


Additional reading:
Ryongsong Residence (Wikipedia article)
Cult of personality figures: 1% (based on GDP of $40b) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/kim-jong-il-cult-costing-north-korea-millions_n_2245711.html and 44.8% http://www.nknews.org/2013/04/what-to-make-of-pyongyangs-recent-political-meetings/


--Jacob Bogle, 4/11/2013
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Update 2 + Sightseeing

I now have files started on all provinces, expanded my file on the DMZ and creating a new folder to deal solely with road blocks in and around the DMZ.

I've also re-organized each file to make them easier to use once they're published. Originally I simply had 3-4 categories for each area but that meant they were enormous and if someone only wanted to view train stations they would have had to un-click all the other placemarks. When I began, I had no idea just how many places would need to be marked. So now the main categories for all files are: Military, Monuments and Domestic but they each will have sub-categories, although there may be some differences dependent on the region.

Sub-categories will usually include:
Domestic - Irrigation & Dams, Road & Rail tunnels, Sub-stations, Fishing villages, Town signs, Burial mounds, Compounds, Road Blocks, Unidentified/Unknown items
Military - Coastal positions, AAA sites, Bunkers/Storage
Monuments will not have any sub-categories.

Also, I did a full count and to-date I have marked over 3,260 new places.

Now, let's have a bit of fun and do some sightseeing. As always, simply click on an image to enlarge it.

First there's this naturally made island in the northwest which looks remarkably similar to the real Korean Peninsula.

I wasn't the first person to find this island which would normally mean I wouldn't post it but I find it most intriguing and thought you would as well. Similarly, some of the other locations in this post have been known about for years but they're still interesting and we're "sightseeing" anyways.

Here's an example of the ~3,200 "Towers of Eternal Life" which were erected in every town and village after the death of Kim Il-sung.[1]

This is another monument. Well, actually there are two, the tower (right) and what is most probably a mural (center) of either Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il.

Here is one of the few working factories in the country.

Based on close-up imagery the factory looks like it was much larger in the past and as the North Korean economy flat-lined many of the buildings were torn down or fell into disrepair. There is still evidence of some production going on given the dark smudges on the undamaged roofs caused by pollution.

This image shows a large communications tower and shadow.

Korean's (both north and south) are traditionally a Confucian society. Part of that entails burial mounds instead of the below ground burials common to Western culture.[2] Here is an example of one such mound.

It is impossible to tell how old this mound is, but it is likely the person who died was either wealthy or an important figure in the region the mound is located in. During the famine, also known as the Arduous March, the bulk of the 1 million+ dead were buried in mass graves or in smaller, irregularly shaped burial mounds. These can be seen on almost every hill in the country. I suppose this mound could have been built for an important person who died during the famine, but again, it's impossible to tell.

This is Sariwon, the capital of North Hwanghae Province. From space, at least, the city looks nicely maintained, has a well laid out street plan and would be a nice place to live. It has a population of over 300,000. The park located slightly off center-left contains a very large statue of Kim Il-sung.

Finally, we have a vast vacation compound in the port city of Wonsan.

I have zoomed in on Kim Jong-il's villa.[3] The grounds contain a number of large homes (you can see two of them on the right side) which are for government officials and guests. The two largest homes both belonged to Kim Jong-il. When he died Kim Jong-un demolished a number of his father's homes but so far this one has remained intact and will likely be used for years to come.


Sources:
1. North Korea's Cult of Personality, Wikipedia
2. Traditional Korean burial mounds, NK Economy Watch
3. Kim Jong-il staying at villa, Daily NK


--Jacob Bogle, 3/2/2013
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