North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inaugurated a pet project to build a seafood farm designed to serve as a “new model base” for the nation in Sinpho over the weekend, just up the road from the factory producing his top-priority nuclear missile submarines. 

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Monday that Kim oversaw a ceremony to open the Sinpho City Offshore Farm two days prior, a factory producing consumer products from “kelp, scallops, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and other things.”

He personally led the military-built project since it started in July, the report said, to create a model he hopes will inspire other coastal area officials to build similar facilities.

The project could have major national repercussions, as Kim said the Sinpho farm construction shows it’s “possible to restore and develop the fishing industry of the country with the aquaculture as the main domain in the future.”

Aquaculture refers to growing and nurturing seafood as opposed to fishing from natural stocks. State media said in coverage of Kim’s previous visit in November that the Sinpho farm had built around 250 acres (100 ha) of “culture grounds” off the coast.

“Our country with a long coastline has a number of coastal cities and our sea is clean and its ecological conditions are very good, so it is necessary to conduct marine fish farming and aquaculture on a large scale in coastal areas by utilizing these favorable conditions,” Kim said on Saturday.

The North Korean leader expressed his “sincere hope that Sinpho City would thrive and become a ‘rich city’ literally in the era of regional change and prosperity and thus bring pleasure and happiness to the people in this region.” 

He said in July that Sinpho would become the “richest city of the DPRK in three to four years.”

Kim also repeatedly talked about the farm and city’s “profitability” and regional economic development but not recent issues such as food shortages. Seafood exports may also be a goal of the new farm.

Though state media has framed the project as being a model under the new 20×10 rural development policy that kicked off this year, it appears that Kim is still not satisfied enough to move on to larger scale replication.

He said during the year-end party plenum last week that yet another “trial basis” offshore farm should be built, likely in 2025, “on the basis of the experience gained” in Sinpho.

He clarified on Saturday that the next farms “should be more advanced” than this year’s first example.

It is likely that Kim chose Sinpho as the location for his model project as a reward for the city’s central role in achieving his goals of building more nuclear missile submarines and even the DPRK’s first nuclear-powered submarine.

These are currently under construction just a mile down the road at the city’s dominant industrial establishment known as the Pongdae Submarine Factory or Shipyard Managed by Ju Song Ho. 

Earlier this month, Kim Jong Un opened the first of 20 light industry factory complexes built this year under the 20×10 policy, with more ceremonies expected in the coming weeks. 

The policy overall requires building at least three factories in 20 cities or counties per year for the next decade, and starting next year, additionally constructing a hospital, cultural center and grain management center in each selected town. 

Another major food-related project set to start in 2025 is a new greenhouse farm in recently destroyed and rebuilt island communities on the Chinese border.

Edited by Bryan Betts