North Korea has started to rebuild a remote mountainous region devastated by floods in recent years into a “utopian” mining town, satellite imagery shows, even as the country has failed to finish several of Kim Jong Un’s marquee construction projects and struggles with the global pandemic and a “food crisis.” 

NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery from Planet Labs and Google Earth shows that North Korea began to demolish entire neighborhoods in the northeastern Komdok region in March and was building around a hundred apartment blocks in May.

The recent construction highlights the high