Following the successulf launch of a satellite, Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea, has ordered the construction of a street of luxury houses for scientists.
The “Avenue of Dawn” is to occupy a prestigious location near the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in northeast Pyongyang, and will be made up predominantly of homes for academics who work at Kim Il Sung University.
Kim gave instructions to build the street into a “monumental edifice strikingly displaying the Workers Party of Korea’s idea of attaching importance to science and talents and to highlight the might of socialist Korea”, reports The Korea Times.
The authoritarian state’s largesse to its scientific establishment follows the successful launch of an Earth observation satellite on 7 February.
The street is to be built in a similar style to one completed last October, dedicated to “future scientists”.
The North’s state news agency KCNA reported Kim as saying the project was to serve as a yardstick for North Korean architecture aligned with its national ideology of self-reliance, which is “making leaps day by day”.
He added that the street’s buildings were to be constructed with “energy-saving 21st century” technology including geothermal energy and solar panels.
Photograph: View of North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang (Wikimedia Commons)
