Access to electricity in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, remains spotty. Even in the center of the city, home to the country’s elite, power is available for only a few hours, and authorities are quick to spread the blame for the electricity shortages.
“Central District and Pyongchon District in the center of Pyongyang had electricity for an average of three hours a day last month and an average of five hours a day this month because of several holidays,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Feb. 28, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Kangdong County, a suburb of Pyongyang, had electricity for an average of just over an hour a day in January and February, while families in Ryongsong and Sadong districts were able to use electricity for an average of two or three hours a day,” the source added.
In other words, the city’s center still has better access to electricity than the outskirts of the North Korean capital.
In March 2023, Daily NK quoted a source in Pyongyang as saying that central districts had an average of four hours of electricity a day, while districts in the outskirts had about one or two hours. In 2019, Daily NK reported that the central districts of the capital received an average of five hours of electricity per day.
In sum, the electricity supply in the central districts of Pyongyang, which the regime’s propaganda calls the “capital of the revolution,” has not improved at all in recent years. If anything, it has gotten worse.
“Residents of the central districts may grumble to themselves [about the lack of electricity], but they would never do so openly out of their awareness [of their privileged status] as citizens of the capital, and elite citizens at that. Perhaps because of endless indoctrination about the need to cooperate with the Marshal’s [Kim Jong Un’s] efforts to strengthen the country’s defense, they think that electricity should be diverted to the military and arms industry to support this cause,” the source said.
Eating dinner by the light of their flashlights