Analysis suggests that North Korea’s new local industrial factory construction sites, chosen as part of this year’s Local Development 20X10 Policy, are linked to military-related operations, including defense production. There are cautious speculations that factories ostensibly built for producing consumer goods to improve people’s lives may secretly operate as military-related facilities on February 1.
NK News, a U.S.-based North Korea specialist media outlet, analyzed satellite imagery from the commercial satellite company Planet Labs. They concluded that most of the seven regions where North Korea began local industrial factory construction this year are associated with major weapons factories and military bases.
According to satellite images, in addition to the groundbreaking ceremony for the local factory in Unryul County on January 29, construction personnel mobilized from the military have begun demolishing existing dilapidated buildings or clearing sites in urban areas of Sinheung, Seoncheon, Pyeonggang, Pyeongwon, Bongsan, and Taean counties in recent weeks.
NK News reported that they examined dozens of cities and counties via satellite imagery, but only seven locations showed typical factory construction preparation trends observed during the Local Development 20X10 Policy over the past two years. They analyzed that most of these sites are related to military and weapons industries.
Sinhung County, located on the east coast, is a major military industry city with a concentration of factories producing missile launch vehicles and armored personnel carriers (APCs). Pyeonggang County, close to the inter-Korean border, houses the headquarters of the Korean People’s Army’s 5th Corps. NK News explained that Pyeongwon County, where the groundbreaking ceremony was held on January 31, has military facilities presumed to be missile bases, and large-scale artillery training grounds can be observed along the coast.
Seoncheon County is home to the October 8 Factory, which North Korea claims is a daily necessities factory, but is suspected of being a secret military base.
General Secretary Kim Jong Un of the Workers’ Party inspected this factory in 2013 and 2014. At the time, North Korean media introduced it as a daily goods production factory. However, the fact that Hong Yong-chil, former deputy director of the Munitions Industry Department (Machine-building Industry Department) and one of the key figures in North Korea’s missile development, accompanied Kim during the inspection suggests that this factory is likely one of the secret military bases.
North Korea has shown a tendency to disguise Kim’s inspections of munitions factories as visits to daily necessities factories or agricultural machinery production facilities to conceal the locations and activities of major military bases. The October 8 Factory is presumed to have been covered in North Korean media in a similar manner.
North Korea has been implementing the Local Development 20X10 Policy since 2024. This plan aims to improve the living standards and material conditions of local residents by constructing modernized local industrial factories and local hospitals in 20 cities and counties every year for 10 years.
Previously, Party General Secretary Kim attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the first local factory of the new year in Unryul County on January 30, revealing plans to build factories, health facilities, and comprehensive service centers in 20 regions this year as well. However, North Korea has not disclosed which 20 regions are the targets for this year’s projects.
NK News pointed out that most of the seven regions captured in satellite images are related to military and weapons industries. They noted that when the Local Development 20X10 Policy was first implemented, North Korea publicly declared it would prioritize the most backward and economically difficult regions, but this year’s trends seem to deviate from that stance.
Some speculate that North Korea might link the Local Development 20X10 Policy projects to the nuclear and conventional weapons parallel development line, which is expected to be confirmed at the 9th Workers’ Party Congress scheduled for this month.
The nuclear and conventional weapons parallel development line is a strategy to simultaneously strengthen nuclear strategic weapons such as advanced ballistic missiles and conventional weapons like multiple rocket launchers advantageous in local conflicts. North Korea is presumed to have established a policy to confront the U.S. with strategic nuclear weapons and South Korea with mass-produced conventional weapons.
Furthermore, there are suggestions that North Korea is increasing production of conventional weapons to assist Russia in the prolonged Ukraine war, possibly linking this to the local industrial factory construction project. On January 3, General Secretary Kim visited a munitions factory producing Spike missiles used in local conflicts and ordered a 2.5-fold increase in production capacity.