For decades, North Korea has generated foreign currency by designing and constructing commemorative monuments across Africa — statues, museums, and public memorials built for governments from Algiers to Harare. International sanctions targeting this network have curtailed but failed to eliminate it. Mansudae Overseas Development Group, the sanctioned state-run firm at the center of North Korea’s Africa monument operations, was active from the 1980s through the 2010s, deploying architects, sculptors, and construction workers to complete prestige projects for client governments across the continent.
The United Nations Security Council has designated the firm and its affiliates as sanctions targets, concluding that revenues from overseas monument construction and labor exports flow directly into North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. UN Security Council Resolution 2371 (2017) placed Mansudae and similar entities on the sanctions list. The U.S. Treasury Department subsequently added affiliated individuals and companies, restricting their financial transactions. Although overseas monument construction is not categorically prohibited by name in U.N. resolutions, activities that generate hard currency for Pyongyang and facilitate sanctions evasion remain under sustained international scrutiny.
Part 1 of this series examined five North Korean-built sites across Africa. Part 2 examines four more, drawing on recent satellite imagery to assess their current condition.
Recent developments in North Korea’s overseas construction network
Following U.N. sanctions, the traditional model of state-contracted North Korean monument construction has contracted significantly — but has not disappeared. After Mansudae was added to the U.N. sanctions list in 2017, multiple countries canceled its corporate registrations or suspended its operations. Algeria formally dissolved Mansudae-linked registrations and reported no further activity, reflecting real reductions in at least some regions.
Nevertheless, recent reporting indicates that North Korean artists and construction personnel continue to reach African countries — including Zimbabwe, Angola, and Nigeria — by transiting through China. Activity is increasingly routed through front organizations or entities operating under different names to obscure the connection to sanctioned firms. This suggests that sanctions have not fully severed the network.
Analysts have also noted that the erosion of the U.N. Security Council Panel of Experts — whose monitoring function was undermined after Russia vetoed renewal of its mandate — has reduced the practical effectiveness of sanctions enforcement. North Korea has exploited these gaps, continuing to attempt overt sanctions violations and evasion through diversified strategies.
In short: U.N. sanctions have significantly curtailed, but not eliminated, North Korea’s overseas monument and construction activities. Pyongyang continues to pursue hard currency through these channels, adapting its methods to avoid detection.
6. Zimbabwe National Heroes Acre (Coordinates: 17°50’6.31″S, 30°59’16.17″E)
Located on the outskirts of the capital Harare, the Zimbabwe National Heroes Acre is a national cemetery and war memorial honoring those who contributed to the country’s liberation struggle and subsequent development. The site commemorates veterans of the Second Chimurenga — the guerrilla war waged against Rhodesian colonial rule during the 1960s and 1970s — and others designated as national heroes. Features include a tomb of the unknown soldier, large-scale statuary, an eternal flame, murals, and a museum. The site’s design incorporates two AK-47 rifles positioned back to back. Hero designation and burial rights are administered by the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the ruling party that has governed Zimbabwe since independence, and the government.
North Korea’s direct involvement in the site is well documented. North Korean architects and sculptors participated in the initial design and construction phases. The memorial is widely reported to have been modeled on Pyongyang’s Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery, a prominent hilltop monument complex north of the capital. The collaboration reflects the close political and cultural ties between Harare and Pyongyang in the years immediately following Zimbabwean independence in 1980.
7. Algeria Martyrs’ Memorial (Coordinates: 36°44’45.72″N, 3°4’10.72″E)
Algeria’s Martyrs’ Memorial, known locally as the Maquam Echahid, is one of North Korea’s most prominent overseas construction achievements. Built by Mansudae Art Studio — the Pyongyang-based creative collective that serves as the artistic arm of the broader Mansudae network — the monument was completed in 1982 to mark the 20th anniversary of Algerian independence from France. At 92 meters tall, the structure consists of three enormous concrete palm fronds curving upward and inward, symbolizing Algeria’s revolutionary spirit and liberation struggle. The design exemplifies the monumental socialist-realist aesthetic that characterizes North Korea’s signature architectural style.
At the time of construction, North Korea and Algeria maintained close diplomatic ties as partners within the Non-Aligned Movement, the Cold War-era bloc of states that sought to avoid alignment with either the U.S. or Soviet blocs. The memorial is widely regarded as a landmark success of North Korea’s “monument diplomacy” in Africa and the Middle East — a strategy of leveraging low-cost, large-scale construction capacity to cultivate political influence and generate hard currency. North Korea pursued similar projects in Senegal, where Mansudae constructed the African Renaissance Monument, as well as in numerous other countries. The Algerian memorial stands today as a historical artifact of the deep political and military relationship between Pyongyang and Algiers during the Cold War era.
8. Angola Agostinho Neto Memorial (Coordinates: 8°49’25.65″S, 13°13’8.52″E)
The Agostinho Neto Memorial in the Angolan capital Luanda is a national monument and mausoleum honoring António Agostinho Neto, Angola’s first president and leader of its anti-colonial liberation movement. Set on a site of approximately 18 hectares, the complex centers on a concrete obelisk approximately 120 meters tall, surrounded by a mausoleum, museum, exhibition galleries, a library, and archival facilities. The memorial documents Neto’s life and Angola’s transition from Portuguese colonial rule to independence and serves as a venue for official state ceremonies.
The project was funded jointly by the Angolan government and the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the ruling party, in cooperation with the North Korean government. Mansudae Overseas Development Group handled both design and construction — one of the firm’s most substantial projects on the continent. The memorial is a characteristic example of the large-scale socialist monumentalism that Mansudae exported to client states across Africa during this period.
9. Botswana Three Dikgosi Monument (Coordinates: 24°38’41.61″S, 25°54’26.45″E)
The Three Dikgosi Monument stands in the central business district of Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, honoring three paramount chiefs — dikgosi in the Setswana language — whose actions in 1895 helped secure the country’s political future. That year, the three chiefs traveled to Britain to petition against incorporation of the Bechuanaland Protectorate into the territory controlled by the British South Africa Company, the private commercial entity that administered much of southern Africa on behalf of British imperial interests. Their intervention helped keep Bechuanaland under direct British Crown protection, ultimately laying the groundwork for Botswana’s peaceful independence in 1966. Each of the three bronze figures stands approximately 5.4 meters tall, with surrounding panels presenting historical and cultural context.
The monument was officially inaugurated Sept. 29, 2005, but its origins drew controversy. Critics, including local journalists and historians, raised objections to the involvement of a foreign firm working in a socialist-realist idiom rather than local artists. Mansudae Overseas Development Group’s participation in the project was specifically criticized. Supporters framed the monument as a reflection of political and diplomatic ties of the period, while opponents argued that outsourcing the commission undermined cultural self-determination. The controversy surrounding the Three Dikgosi Monument illustrates the broader tensions that North Korea’s monument diplomacy has generated in several African countries.
