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.
Many families felt proud when they first moved into the gleaming new buildings. After months of outages, some now openly say they want to return to their old homes. Those single-story houses and older low-rise blocks at least had working lights and running water.
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.
Pyongyang power shortage complaints branded anti-socialist
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.
Neighborhood watch units are grassroots groups of a few dozen households that the state uses for surveillance. During self-criticism sessions, participants must confess their own ideological failings and criticize their neighbors.
The crackdown has made it risky for people in Pyongyang to voice even minor frustrations. “The authorities treat every complaint about the power shortage as an ideological problem,” the source said. “Some people just shake their heads at how far the crackdown has gone.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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November 10, 2026 at 12:59AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)