The accident hints at one of the risks North Korea faces as it races to complete construction projects using “soldier-builders” mandated to work at top speed. Under Kim, the North has devoted reams of propaganda to its construction prowess, highlighting its completion of pleasure parks, apartment buildings and power stations.
In his New Year’s address, which laid out government policy, Kim called on service personnel and citizens to “make concerted efforts to build up Pyongyang so that it is more grandiose.”
Kim has “associated himself very clearly with this building boom,” said Adam Cathcart, a lecturer at the University of Leeds in northern England and the founder of the Sino-NK blog, which closely monitors North Korea’s propaganda. “But he also needs to distance himself from this kind of accident.”
Defectors say major industrial accidents occur regularly in mines and other labor sites far away from the capital. But a building collapse in Pyongyang appears to be rare. The North funnels its scarce resources to the city and allows only members of its top social strata — its “loyal” class — to live there.