Pyongyang becoming “three-dimensional” city with skyscrapers and smartphones

Posted on : 2015-08-27 16:09 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Recent trip by South Korean media to cover under-15 soccer tournament was the first in five years
 Aug. 24. On the left
Aug. 24. On the left

A Yonhap News reporter shared an account of Pyongyang undergoing a visible transformation into a “three-dimensional” city, in an Aug. 26 piece for the agency after returning from a ten-day-long trip on Aug. 16 to cover the second annual international under-15 soccer tournament, saying “Changjon Street along the Taedong River is lined with high-rise apartment blocks equal in scale to residential-commercial buildings like Tower Palace in Seoul’s Gangnam district. Roughly one in three of the cell phones carried by Pyongyang residents was a smartphone.”

In particular, the reporter discusses a new form of residential environment that has been built since Kim Jong-un came to power: forty- to fifty-story apartment complexes along Changjon Street in the Mansu and Kyongsang areas facing Rungra Island. Large performance venues and athletic facilities were also located next to the tournament lodgings at Yanggakdo International Hotel, with a roughly similar scale to the Sejong Center in downtown Seoul, the reporter added.

“It was surprising to see residents running their fingers along smartphone screens as they walked along the streets. It seemed little different from Gwanghwamun,” the article said, referring to a busy central area in downtown Seoul.

The reporter also described the use of electronic currency known as “Narae Cards” at Pyongyang stores - a similar format to the “T-Money” used in South Korea.

Trackless trolleys similar to buses were also traveling the streets, with passengers lining up 20 to 30 meters deep at stops during rush hour to pack the trams tighter than South Korean subways at peak capacity, the reporter added. Another standout passage described solar panels throughout downtown Pyongyang, with panels visible on every other apartment veranda.

“The residents installed them themselves because of the electricity shortage,” a local guide was quoted as saying.

Naengmyeon (cold noodles) at the Okryugwan restaurant on Changjon Street are described as being made with 100% buckwheat and served in a broth simmered with beef, chicken, pork, and pheasant. The reporter also described the noodles themselves as being similar in color to the kudzu-based variety served in South Korea, but with a completely different texture: chewy, but coming apart easily when chewed.

“Because Okryugwan is so popular, there are many people all around Pyongyang that try to imitate it, but none can produce the same flavor,” the guide was quoted as saying.

Comparing the dish to those served at noted South Korean restaurants, the report described the broth as “similar to Wooraeok’s” and the noodles as “like those at Bongpiyang.”

 

By Lee Se-young, staff reporter

 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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