The Pyongyang General Hospital ( ko, 평양종합병원) is a hospital under construction in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populat ...

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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

. The hospital is located in front of

Monument to Party Founding The Monument to Party Founding () is a monument in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. The monument is rich in symbolism: its hammer, sickle and calligraphy brush symbolize the workers, farmers and intellectuals. It is 50 meters high to s ...

. Its groundbreaking took place on 19 March 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, and its construction proceeded on the basis of a "speed campaign" with an expected completion date of October 2020, before the 75th anniversary celebrations of the

Workers' Party of Korea The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party ...

Background

NK News reported that the project had been agreed at a four-day meeting ending on 31 December 2019, which had "discussed and decided on the tasks to first construct a modern general hospital in Pyongyang for the promotion of the health of the people for the 75th Party Foundation anniversary". At the groundbreaking ceremony, Chairman Kim Jong-un admitted that there were "numerous obstacles" to completing the hospital in such short a time and that completion of the hospital would come at the expense of other projects. After groundbreaking, several officials penned op-eds in ''

Rodong Sinmun ''Rodong Sinmun'' (; ) is a North Korean newspaper that serves as the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. It was first published on November 1, 1945, as ''Chŏngro'' (), serving as a communication channel ...

'' vowing to wage “all-night battles” for the hospital's construction. The hospital is considered the first major project of the "head-on breakthrough" campaign, in the mould of the

Chollima Movement The Chollima Movement () was a state-sponsored Stakhanovite movement in North Korea intended to promote rapid economic development. Launched in 1956 or 1958, the movement emphasized "ideological incentives to work harder" and the personal guidance ...

, conceived in the wake of the failure of the

Hanoi summit Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

(and the corresponding lack of sanctions relief) and the subsequent downplaying of the five-year plan.

Construction

By April 2, foundation works were already 63% complete, according to the '' Pyongyang Times''. By 15 June, the two towers of the hospital had topped-out. The project has passed the original deadline of October 2020 and is yet to be opened, although preparations for the operation of the hospital have been 'pushed ahead'. In January 2021, '' Radio Free Asia'' reported that the exterior of the hospital was complete, but the interior was still incomplete, as the COVID-19 pandemic and

sanctions against North Korea A number of countries and international bodies have imposed sanctions against North Korea. Currently, many sanctions are concerned with North Korea's nuclear weapons program and were imposed after its first nuclear test in 2006. The United St ...

stalled importing hospital equipment. In April 2023 it was published that on June 2022 Kim Jong-un approved the hospital's interior designs as well as the uniforms of the medical staff.

References

Hospitals established in 2020 Hospitals in North Korea Buildings and structures in Pyongyang 2020 establishments in North Korea {{Asia-hospital-stub