Life in the new Pyongyang tower-blocks. From the Daily NK:
A worsening Pyongyang power shortage has left the capital’s new high-rises without elevators or running water in fall 2026. Rather than fixing the problem, North Korean authorities are hunting down the people who complain about it.
Discontent over the erratic electricity supply is growing in a cluster of new apartment towers in Ryokpo district. A source in Pyongyang shared the details with Daily NK on Friday. Ryokpo district sits on the southeastern outskirts of the North Korean capital.
“The state boasts that these 20- to 30-story apartment buildings are modern,” the source said. “Yet many of them get less than an hour or two of electricity a day. Without power, the elevators stop and the pumps that push water upstairs shut down. Water outages have now become a normal part of daily life.”
People living on upper floors now climb dozens of flights of dark stairs every day. They haul heavy water containers by hand or on their shoulders before dawn and after work.
The power shortage is also leaving the buildings cold as winter sets in. Families cannot run electric heaters or even burn coal, so they shiver in icy drafts seeping through the windows.
Tenants have begun voicing their anger openly, according to the source. “They said the marshal gave us new homes out of his benevolence, but he put us in a prison that’s killing us,” some have said. The marshal is the honorific North Koreans are expected to use for Kim Jong Un.
“What good is a modern apartment when we can barely get a drop of water?” others have asked. They say the state painted the exterior walls to look good while families wait all day for power….
The towers are part of Kim Jong Un’s signature campaign to build 50,000 new homes in Pyongyang. He announced the plan at the Eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in 2021. State media have hailed showcase projects like the 10,000-home Hwasong district as symbols of modern socialist living. Yet the city’s electricity supply remains unreliable years after construction began.
The source said the problem extends well beyond Ryokpo to high-rises across the capital. “Even downtown, where power is supposed to be steadier, some high-rises get only a few hours a day,” the source said. “People get new homes, but life in them is so hard that complaints are erupting everywhere.”
Daily NK has previously reported that elevators in Pyongyang’s tallest towers often run only during rush hour. Families on upper floors must rely on the stairs for the rest of the day.
City officials, however, treat the complaints as a political threat rather than a livelihood problem. They have branded the grumbling as slander against the system and a sign of distrust in the regime.
Officials have also tied the complaints to “anti-socialist” activity, according to the source. They have mobilized the Ministry of Social Security to find and punish people who speak out. The ministry is North Korea’s national police agency and enforces laws against behavior the regime deems anti-socialist.
On Oct. 27, the Pyongyang city party committee ordered emergency meetings in every neighborhood watch unit. Its propaganda and agitation department said the units would hold ideological self-criticism sessions two to three times a week. They will also stage public criticism meetings aimed at people caught complaining.
That’s the way to deal with ungrateful troublemakers.
There’s nothing that says “socialist utopia” like carrying buckets of water up to your freezing apartment at the top of a new high-rise.
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