Temporary shelter for ‘thousands’ of North Korean soldier-builders has sprung up in the northeast of Pyongyang, satellite imagery dated May 2016 shows, potentially impacting local neighbors in the area.

Scores of the shelters – raised temporarily for soldiers mobilized to complete a major 3,000 apartment complex along Ryomyong street – can be seen in the imagery, which was taken less than two months after construction kicked off.

“Sandwiched in every square inch of open ground around the perimeter of just blocks and blocks and blocks of apartment buildings are all these make-shift army camps,” said a regular visitor to