Each of the new mansions occupies about 13 thousand square meters. m, which is comparable to the two residences built for the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019. At the time, Pyongyang completed construction in just four months, indicating urgent preparations for the visit.
Images from Planet Labs and Maxar show that by mid-November 2025, workers had already poured the foundations of all three buildings, and by December 2, several floors had been built. The scale of work and pace indicate the priority nature of the project.
North Korea has not officially announced any upcoming visits. Among the potential guests are the illegitimate president of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping. US President Donald Trump also offered to visit Pyongyang for sanctions talks in October, around the same time construction work began, but North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not publicly respond to this, the publication said.
It is also possible that the new facilities are intended for the personal use of Kim Jong-un and are not related to specific negotiations. The complex was previously used not only to receive foreign delegations, but also for domestic events.
The construction of the mansions is taking place simultaneously with the construction of a new cemetery and museum nearby for North Korean servicemen who died in the Russian war against Ukraine.
Context
In 2022, when the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, North Korea started supplying weapons of the Russian Federation. In 2024, Moscow and Pyongyang signed an agreement providing for mutual military assistance in the event of aggression.
Since October 2024, North Korean troops have been taking part in the war against Ukraine on the side of the Russian Federation. According to Ukraine, as of the beginning of 2025, 12 thousand military personnel arrived from the DPRK, 3.8 thousand of them died or were injured.
On September 2, the Yonhap agency, citing NIS, reported that approximately 2 thousand North Korean troops.
