Kim highlights power plant construction…Ignores people’s suffering
Kim Jong-un address the completion ceremony for a local plant on November 20 (Image: Rodong Sinmun)
Kim Jong-un last week opened a new power plant, praising the patriotic “self-reliance” of the people, seemingly oblivious to the actual burdens placed on them by such projects.
The Hoiyang County People’s Power Plant in Kangwon Province is a “patriotic project of eternal significance,” Kim said in an address reported by Rodong Sinmun on November 21.
The transformation of nature and the creation of material wealth through such large-scale infrastructure projects is central to national development, he said.
Kim’s address revealed both the economic direction North Korea is pursuing and the difficulties it currently faces, underscoring the fact that energy acquisition and regional development remain top economic priorities.
The recurring themes of the speech were self-reliance and local development. The plant is a “base of self-sustaining power” he said.
It is located in the southeast in Kangwon Province, which is the only divided province on the peninsula. (The South Korean side spells its half Gangwon in English).
“I extend warm thanks in the name of the Party Central Committee to the people of Kangwon Province and the soldiers who have presented this precious wealth to our Party’s Ninth Congress, so that future generations may benefit from it,” Kim said.
Such remarks frame the construction not merely as an economic achievement but as a testament to political loyalty.
In practice, the policy of “self-reliance” translates into heavy burdens for the people. Building power plants requires vast labor and materials, often involving additional mobilization of farmers and workers, compulsory donations of goods, and even household-level levies.
Kim’s assertion that the achievement is “something money cannot buy or be exchanged for” reflects the regime’s intent to substitute residents’ sweat and sacrifice for scarce foreign currency and imports.
These projects are thus erected upon the population’s hardship, with “achievements” to come promising further enforced tasks and suffering.
North Korea continues to struggle under international sanctions and isolation. It faces a triple crisis of energy shortages, weak industrial foundations, and delayed improvements in living standards. Kim’s speech offered the “self-reliant power plant economy” as a solution, but in reality it highlighted the regime’s limitations.
Kim described power plant construction as a “grand project of remaking nature,” portraying it as a national triumph.
With sanctions severely restricting imports of cement, steel, and machinery, construction relies on “loyalty offerings” and local procurement effectively functioning as forced taxation.
By presenting Kangwon Province as a model, Kim pressed other regions to follow suit, signaling nationwide expansion of mobilization. While framed as balanced regional development, the policy in reality enforces central directives as political obligations.
Citizens must endure present hardship under the banner of “wealth for future generations,” deepening poverty and lowering living standards.
The reality is that even completed plants cannot resolve systemic problems of outdated transmission and distribution networks, low efficiency, and overall industrial backwardness. Yet Kim insists residents should feel “revolutionary joy,” prioritizing political loyalty over tangible economic progress.
Ultimately, the speech reveals the trajectory the country is taking. Energy development and local projects are necessary goals, but the chosen path rests on compulsory mobilization and sacrifice.
While Kim seeks to showcase regime stability through power plant construction, the cost is borne by residents in shortages, forced labor, and curtailed freedoms. The “self-reliant power plant economy” may sustain the system, but it offers little prospect of improving the lives of ordinary people.
Kim Yumi, a North Korean defector, was born and raised in Haeju, South Hwanghae Province, a coastal military area. Growing up near a naval base, she was able to secretly watch South Korean news programs and TV shows, thereby uncovering the vibrant, democratic society of South Korea. Yumi and her husband made the brave decision to escape North Korea and seek a better future. Now in Seoul, she is actively involved in raising awareness about the realities of life in North Korea, especially on her YouTube channel, “@KimYumiTV.”
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