Mansudae Overseas Projects is a construction company based in Jongphyong-dong, Phyongchon District,

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. It is the international commercial division of the Mansudae Art Studio. As of August 2011, it had earned an estimated US$160 million overseas building monuments and memorials. As of 2015, Mansudae projects have been built in 17 countries: Angola, Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cambodia, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Germany, Malaysia, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Togo and Zimbabwe. The company uses North Korean artists, engineers, and construction workers rather than those of the local artists and workers. Sculptures, monuments, and buildings are in the style of North Korean socialist realism.

Notable works

Angola

Mansudae Overseas Projects constructed the President Agostinho Neto Cultural Centre in

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Benin

In Benin, the company has built a statue of Béhanzin.

Botswana

In Botswana, it constructed the Three Dikgosi Monument, also called the Three Chiefs monument.

Cambodia

Angkor Panorama Museum was built next to the Angkor temples. The museum is operated jointly by

APSARA Apsaras (, , Khmer language, Khmer: អប្សរា are a class of celestial beings in Hinduism, Hindu and Culture of Buddhism, Buddhist culture. They were originally a type of female spirit of the clouds and waters, but, later play ...

and Mansudae. About half of 40 staff members are from North Korea. Unlike the earlier Mansudae's projects abroad, this time North Korea is attempting to make money by complementary sales of tickets and art. the museum is projected to be completely handed over to Cambodians in twenty years, unless North Korean profits stay low, and the time needs to be extended. The number of visitors to the museum have been meager so far. However, Cambodian deputy director of the museum stated in an interview that in the present day it is very hard to make money with museums, and he remarked that marketing of the museum has not yet started. As of January 2020, the museum has been shuttered indefinitely due to international sanctions compliance.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it has built a statue of

Laurent-Désiré Kabila Laurent-Désiré Kabila (; 27 November 1939 – 16 January 2001) usually known as Laurent Kabila or Kabila the Father (American English, US: ), was a Congolese rebel and politician who served as the third president of the Democratic Republic of t ...

Ethiopia

The Tiglachin Monument, also known as the Derg Monument, is a pillar erected in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

was donated by North Korea in 1984. The monument has fallen into neglect.

Germany

Reconstruction of Frankfurt’s , an art nouveau relic from 1910 that had been melted down for its metal during World War II. Germany is the only western nation to have a North Korean-built structure.

Mozambique

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

, Mansudae Overseas Projects constructed the Samora Machel Statue in Independence Square,

Maputo Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

in 2011.

Namibia

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

is the only country to have commissioned four public works by Mansudae Overseas Projects. *'' Heroes' Acre'' (inaugurated August 2002) with a statue of the unknown soldier near

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

, Namibia. * Okahandja Military Museum (inaugurated 2004, closed to the public), located in Okahandja, north of Windhoek *The New State House of Namibia (inaugurated 2008) on a 40.4 ha site in Windhoek. * Independence Memorial Museum (inaugurated 2014), central Windhoek.

Senegal

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, the company built the African Renaissance Monument.

Togo

In the north of

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

, there is a large statue of the late president Gnassingbé Eyadéma, constructed by Mansudae. The statue was erected close to the village of Sara-Kawa, where Eyadéma was famously the sole survivor of a plane crash in January 1974, and is part of a broader memorial to the victims of the crash.

Zimbabwe

National Heroes' Acre is a burial ground and national monument in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. Work began on the site in 1981 and used by Zimbabwean and North Korean workers. It closely mirrors the design of the

Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery Taesongsan Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery () is a cemetery and memorial to the North Korean soldiers fighting for freedom and independence against Korea under Japanese rule, Japanese rule. The 30-hectare site is located near the top of Mount Ta ...

in Taesong-guyŏk, just outside

, North Korea. The '' Joshua Nkomo Statue'' was constructed in 2010 in

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...

References

External links

{{Commons category
Mansudae Art Studio, North Korea's Colossal Monument Factory
* Tycho van der Hoog: ''Monuments of power: the North Korean origin of nationalist heritage in Namibia and Zimbabwe''. - Leiden : African Studies Centre, 2019
Tycho van der Hoog: ''North Korean monuments in southern Africa: Legitimizing party rule through the National Heroes’ Acres in Zimbabwe and Namibia''. Leiden, 2017
Architecture in Namibia