Some newly built homes in North Korea’s coal mining and farming regions are being abandoned within two years of being occupied, with the empty houses quickly becoming targets for thieves and deteriorating into eyesores, a source in South Pyongan province told Daily NK on Tuesday.
“Cases of newly built homes in Kaechon city’s coal mining areas being left vacant are increasing,” the source said. “In houses where no one lives, it doesn’t take long before window glass, wallpaper and even plastic insulation sheeting get stripped away.”
According to the source, the Pongchon coal mine area of Kaechon city is a representative example, where new homes were built for discharged soldiers and young workers who had petitioned through a state mobilization program to take up coal mining. The intent was to encourage them to settle near the mines by giving new housing to those who were about to marry or had already started families.
However, some of the homes provided this way are reportedly being left vacant within two years of being occupied. “Several of the newly built homes in the Pongchon coal mine area have already become empty houses,” the source said. “There’s no shortage of homes that have had their window glass, wallpaper and winter insulation sheeting stripped away.”
According to the source, this is not a problem limited to one particular area. Similar cases are occurring not only in coal mining regions but in farming villages as well.
North Korea has continued assigning discharged soldiers and young petition workers to mining and farming regions in an effort to boost production and address labor shortages. In this process, the supply of new homes is used both to help them settle and to showcase the authorities’ achievements in regional development.
But in practice, many of these workers have no real intention of settling long-term in mining or farming areas, limiting the effectiveness of the housing supply policy, observers say. Poor working conditions, low income and a lack of basic infrastructure combine so that, even after receiving a new home, many leave it behind and move elsewhere within a short time.
“Will giving a new house change the minds of people who never intended to stay in the first place?” the source said. “Not a few take the house and then leave within a few months to look for new income elsewhere, and once they go, they don’t try to come back.”
Newly built homes quickly become targets for thieves
The problem starts once people leave. If a home shows no sign of habitation for several months, it reportedly becomes the first target for thieves.
“At first, thieves break the lock and take anything that can be sold, like aluminum pots, furniture and household items,” the source said. “After that, since the door is left open, people passing by quietly take whatever they need, one item at a time.”
Students in particular reportedly strip windows and wallpaper from these empty homes to meet quotas schools assign for collecting recyclable waste paper and scrap glass, a recurring mobilization task in North Korea’s education system. As a result, homes built only a few years ago are deteriorating quickly.
“Once the door comes off, a perfectly fine new house turns into a ruin in no time,” the source said. “In the end, it’s not that mining or farming areas lack houses. What’s needed are measures that make people actually want to live there.”
Meanwhile, people in the area are reportedly questioning whether new homes are even being supplied according to actual demand or need.
“People say that since the people who have lived in the area for decades are left in their old homes, while new houses go to those with no intention of settling down, it’s no wonder empty houses keep piling up,” the source said. “There’s talk that the people who have lived in the area the longest should be looked after first.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
Daily NK operates networks of sources inside North Korea who document events in real-time and transmit information through secure channels. Unlike reporting based on state media, satellite imagery, or defector accounts from years past, our journalism comes directly from people currently living under the regime. We verify reports through multiple independent sources and cross-reference details before publication.
Our sources remain anonymous because contact with foreign media is treated as a capital offense in North Korea — discovery means imprisonment or execution. This network-based approach allows Daily NK to report on developments other outlets cannot access: market trends, policy implementation, public sentiment, and daily realities that never appear in official narratives.
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June 18, 2026 at 02:12AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)