Even in the middle of a cold snap, North Korea has launched a final race to complete the Sinuiju Greenhouse Complex, currently under construction on Wihwa Island in the Yalu River near Sinuiju. Analysis of satellite data from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8, as well as Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) imagery, showed that North Korea is conducting high-intensity construction to finish early, with full mobilization of construction personnel—despite freezing temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius (-14 degrees Fahrenheit)—and late-night labor.
North Korea has pushed ahead with construction of a massive greenhouse complex covering 450 hectares on Wihwa Island, which would be the largest greenhouse complex the country has announced. KCNA recently reported that leader Kim Jong Un paid his first on-site guidance visit of the new year to the Wihwa Island construction site, where he encouraged workers and checked on progress. About 97% of construction has been completed, with workers having begun the completion stage. South Korean media believe construction on the complex may be completed in February, one year after it began.
Satellite images indicate that the Sinuiju Greenhouse Complex covers about 450 hectares. This is about 1.5 times the area of Yeouido, an island in Seoul’s Han River regarded as the South Korean capital’s Manhattan. Its massive scale aside, the greenhouse complex is viewed as an ambitious North Korean project to establish an “agriculturally self-sufficient city” on the geographic peculiarity of Wihwa Island. Construction has entered its final stage, with work underway on beautification and landscaping.
KCNA said the Sinuiju Greenhouse Complex is not simply a facility to produce vegetables, but also a research center to study cultivation of experimental crops and new technology, a space to process and store vegetables, and an integrated agricultural and living complex that includes housing and other public spaces connected to the greenhouses, as well as local infrastructure. It explained that while other greenhouses previously pushed by North Korea usually focused on production, this facility represents a new direction, bringing together scientific cultivation, latest technology, and living spaces within a single, large-scale farm of “national symbolic” significance.
To the right of the greenhouse complex is Uiju Airfield, a mixed-use facility with both civilian and military operations. In Sentinel 2-B images captured on Jan. 7, snow continued to cover long stretches of the 2.5-kilometer runway. This is quite strange through South Korean eyes—in the South, all hands would be on deck to remove snow so that planes could take off and land. This suggests North Korean military airfields generally lack equipment or facilities to remove snow. It also indicates that authorities simply regard snow removal as a less-than-pressing task, given the infrequency of military aircraft operations.
Freezing temperatures, nighttime construction
Thermal infrared (TIR) imagery showed that the average temperature along the Yalu River was -8 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit). Despite the cold and wind, workers were rushing to finish construction of the greenhouse complex early.
I examined the surface temperature and temperature distribution in the Wihwa Island area using thermal infrared images from Landsat-8, a U.S. Earth observation satellite. According to Jan. 5 data, the average temperature in the Wihwa Island area was -8 degrees Celsius, with a low of -14 and a high of zero—the area along the Yalu River was freezing. This means workers are busy trying to finish construction, enduring icy winds during a cold snap, to complete one of Kim Jong Un’s signature projects. Considering the sharp, icy winds along the Yalu River, temperatures must have felt even colder than they were.
I also looked at recent nighttime lights in the Wihwa Island area, captured at 1:30 a.m. by the Suomi NPP, a polar-orbiting satellite jointly operated by NASA and NOAA. In images taken on Jan. 6, the Chinese city of Dandong was blazing bright along the riverside, befitting a border city. Across the river in North Korea, night lights could be seen on Wihwa Island, the site of the greenhouse complex, as well as on Mado and Kumdong islands. We believe this means North Korean soldiers and labor brigades, using lighting equipment, are working in the freezing night to finish construction. Generally, nighttime construction in winter, when temperatures plummet, runs the risk of shoddy quality and safety accidents, but North Korea’s political determination to complete construction early—regardless of the risk—seems to be strongly at work.
Expected completion date
Considering it took about 13 months to complete the 260-hectare greenhouse farm in Pyongyang’s Kangdong county, observers predicted it would take at least a year and a half to complete the Sinuiju complex, which is more than 70% larger. However, given the nighttime scramble to finish construction and the fact that workers have already begun the beautification and landscaping stage, North Korea appears to be racing to achieve a rare record—completing work within about a year. Given the final work visible in satellite images, North Korea could hold a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony as early as this spring. Some South Korean media outlets have even predicted work will end in February, one year after construction began.
North Korea is expected to make much propaganda use out of the Sinuiju Greenhouse Complex as a “national symbol of regional development” achieved by overcoming the physical limits of unfavorable climatic conditions and international sanctions. However, we will need to keep a close eye on whether the late-night work in the freezing cold affects the facility’s internal integrity and completeness.
January 19, 2026 at 11:41PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)