A new warehouse storing food and clothing for the military has been built in the Mangyongdae district of Pyongyang.
“A food and clothing supply depot under the General Logistics Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense has gone up next to the security university in Mangyongdae district. Construction began in the fall of 2018,” a source in North Korea told Daily NK recently.
The stages of facility construction are evident in satellite photos from Google Earth, which show that the lot began to be cleared in April 2018 and that construction continued through 2023. The fact that construction went on for more than five years, suggests work may have been delayed because of the pandemic.
The current state of the facility has not been verified because more recent photographs are not available on Google Earth.
“The facility was built by the military construction bureau of the Ministry of National Defense and is being operated by the General Logistics Bureau,” the source said.
The North Korean term for logistics (hubang) is a broad term that covers the supply of food, clothing and fuel. The General Logistics Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense is in charge of providing rations and munitions for the military and acquiring and maintaining the emergency wartime stockpile.
The facility is strictly off limits to the general public.
“Aside from members of relevant departments, access to the facility is forbidden even for service members, not to mention civilians. Active-duty soldiers have been assigned to two guard units (at the facility) since February, and there are plans to erect a barbed wire fence in the future,” the source explained.
“Passersby are expected to move along without looking around or loitering for more than a few minutes. Anybody caught taking photos by soldiers on patrol is having their mobile phones confiscated,” the source went on to say.
That has prompted some speculation that the facility is not merely a supply depot, but a critical military facility.
“The facility is basically thought to be a storehouse for military supplies. But since security is getting tighter and civilian access is being strictly controlled, there are also conjectures that the facility serves another purpose. Since the items being stored are food and clothing, many people think it’s probably a strategic storehouse intended to supply the Korean People’s Army in time of war,” the source said.
“Given the recent tightening of security, some people also think a shipment of important military supplies may have entered the country,” the source added.
But North Koreans are disinclined to discuss the facility’s purpose in public and reserve the topic for quiet conversations with close friends.
“Various rumors have been going around since construction began on the facility, but there’s a strong tendency to avoid open discussion of the matter,” the source said.
The State Secret Protection Act, which North Korea enacted in 2023, states that information related to (1) the security of the state’s supreme command, (2) the implementation of party and state policy, (3) the defense sector and the armed forces and (4) the state security sector are to be strictly controlled and that anybody who leaks those secrets is to be severely punished.
March 31, 2025 at 05:37AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)