North Hamgyong residents decry forced levies for Pyongyang’s Hwasong district phase 5 construction

North Hamgyong province has issued emergency orders demanding material support and labor brigade recruitment for the phase 5 construction project in Pyongyang’s Hwasong district, Daily NK has learned.

According to a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province yesterday, the North Hamgyong provincial party committee issued an emergency directive on Feb. 20 calling for “construction support and labor brigade recruitment” following the groundbreaking ceremony for the Hwasong district phase 5 project.

The source, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the directive contained “a stringent demand that all provincial people spare no effort, both materially and in spirit, in supporting the capital’s construction project” by the end of February.

On the afternoon of Feb. 20, provincial party officials were dispatched to Chongjin, Onsong county and Musan county, where they convened meetings with local party and people’s committee officials, agency heads, and neighborhood watch unit leaders to communicate the directive’s contents.

Supplies, loyalty and surveillance

At those gatherings, the provincial party officials designated the period through the end of February as a “concentrated period of support for capital construction” and strongly urged every individual and household to fulfill their assigned support quotas as proof of loyalty.

Specifically, they demanded that all households prepare gloves, shoes and work clothes to be sent to the Hwasong district phase 5 construction site, along with rice and food provisions for labor brigade members, by the end of February. Each person was required to fill out a “support form” detailing exactly what materials they had contributed, with the results to be tallied at the neighborhood watch unit level.

According to the source, provincial party officials invoked the political slogan “The loyalty of North Hamgyong province’s people must bloom at Pyongyang’s Hwasong district construction site” and imposed material contribution quotas two to three times higher than in previous campaigns.

The officials also emphasized that contributions must be made in actual construction materials rather than cash. “Some people in the past submitted money instead of supplies, but that is not a genuine act,” they said.

Alongside the material support drive, North Hamgyong province has also moved to recruit members for a “North Hamgyong Brigade” to be deployed to the Hwasong district phase 5 construction site.

While the provincial party directed each level to select volunteers, the source said that because no one was stepping forward willingly, officials were instructed to conscript youth and skilled workers on a near-compulsory basis.

In response, some young people have been taking sick leave, abandoning their workplaces, or resorting to bribery to avoid being drafted into the labor brigades. However, after the provincial party caught wind of this, it threatened to treat such behavior as a political offense, leaving many with little choice but to be mobilized, the source said.

‘We are barely surviving’

The directive has triggered an outpouring of resentment among the North Korean people.

“People are furious at being told to hand over yet another pair of gloves and shoes when the local market is already shrinking,” the source said. “There are also cries of despair from people asking why the provinces, which have no rations and are barely surviving, should be responsible for sending both supplies and people to build the capital.”

The groundbreaking ceremony for phase 5 of the Hwasong district construction was held Feb. 18, 2026, just two days after Kim Jong Un attended an inauguration ceremony marking the completion of the previous four stages of the project. State media described the completion of the four-stage project as having over-fulfilled the goal of 50,000 new homes set at the Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in 2021. 

Read in Korean

A Note to Readers

Daily NK operates networks of sources inside North Korea who document events in real-time and transmit information through secure channels. Unlike reporting based on state media, satellite imagery, or defector accounts from years past, our journalism comes directly from people currently living under the regime.

We verify reports through multiple independent sources and cross-reference details before publication. Our sources remain anonymous because contact with foreign media is treated as a capital offense in North Korea—discovery means imprisonment or execution.

This network-based approach allows Daily NK to report on developments other outlets cannot access: market trends, policy implementation, public sentiment, and daily realities that never appear in official narratives. Maintaining these secure communication channels and protecting source identities requires specialized protocols and constant vigilance.

Daily NK serves as a bridge between North Koreans and the outside world, documenting what’s happening inside one of the world’s most closed societies.