Two years after their homes were torn down for a new rural housing project, some families in North Korea’s Jagang province are still living in rented storerooms in 2026.
A source in Jagang province told Daily NK on Wednesday that housing construction has continued for several years in Manpo and other parts of the province. Most of the work is taking place in farming villages and around factories. Manpo is a city on the Yalu River that faces the Chinese city of Ji’an across the border.
Kim Jong Un has made regional development and rural housing a signature policy in recent years. Under that push, North Korean authorities are clearing homes scattered across mountain valleys. They are moving the families into standardized housing complexes built in designated areas.
Jagang province is a mountainous region along the Chinese border, so many of its homes stand in small clusters. They sit beside railway lines, near tunnels and deep in remote valleys. Authorities have recently been tearing down these homes and are building new ones near the state agencies, enterprises or cooperative farms where the families work, according to the source.
The problem is that officials order families out of their old homes before the new ones are finished, so many displaced families have nowhere to live in the meantime.
“They told people they would build them new houses, emptied their homes and tore them down,” the source said. “But some people still haven’t received a new house after two years. Nobody knows when construction will end, so people are living with other families or paying to rent a room.”
Some families got no temporary housing from local authorities after the demolitions, the source said, adding that they now stay with relatives or rent storerooms and spare rooms from neighbors.
One man who lost his home to the project pays 50,000 North Korean won a month to rent a storeroom in another family’s house. That sum is higher than the market price of 1 kilogram of rice in recent Daily NK surveys. “I barely made it through last winter, then the summer and the rainy season,” he said. “Now the cold is coming again, so I’m very worried.”
“I’m far from the only one in this situation,” he added. “They start projects everywhere but don’t seem to think about where and how people should live in the meantime.”
Rural housing delays leave families paying rent and firewood costs
Local families in Manpo say they support the goal of better housing. Still, many of them are frustrated with the way officials are carrying out the construction.
“Building homes for people is a good thing,” the source said. “But people are asking what the point is if officials knock down houses as if new ones are ready and then make families rent for years.”
“They should finish the new homes before moving people out,” the source added. “If they’ve already moved them out, they should hurry up and complete the work.”
The burden on families in temporary quarters is growing as the weather turns cold again. On top of monthly rent, they must also pay for firewood to heat their rooms through the winter. Storerooms and other spaces never meant for living are hard to keep warm, and families struggle to store food and household goods in such cramped spaces.
“In your own home, you can prepare properly for the winter,” the source said. “That’s hard to do when you’re staying in someone else’s house or a storeroom. Words can’t describe how hopeless people feel about spending another deep winter in a storeroom.”
Winters in Jagang province are among the harshest in North Korea, with temperatures often falling below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit). For families without proper homes, firewood is now one more cost on top of the rent they pay for borrowed space.
The housing drive was meant to improve living conditions in rural North Korea. Instead, the long delays have left families who lost their homes facing insecure housing and a heavier cost of living.
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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October 2, 2026 at 07:09PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)