North Korea’s foreign ministry headquarters is undergoing major construction works in Pyongyang, recent street-level photos and satellite imagery shows, with as much as half the complex appearing to have been abruptly removed and rapidly rebuilt.

The ministry’s westerly and northern wings appear to have been completely demolished sometime between August 12 and 26, satellite imagery inspected at Planet Labs indicates, with rapid construction since restoring much – but not all – of the missing areas.

It appears that the effort is designed to rehabilitate and redesign parts of the decades-old complex as quickly as possible, with three