North Korea Experiences Construction Boom Ahead Of 2012 Events

PYONGYANG, North Korea — The capital of North Korea is going through a construction boom, and its biggest project in more than a decade started at the beginning of this month.

Associated Press Television News in North Korea on Friday showed a large area in the center of Pyongyang that has been turned into a huge construction site – part of an effort to build 100,000 new apartments in North Korea’s capital by 2012.

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and is seen as a highly significant year because Kim, who died in 1994, is considered to be the country’s “eternal president.”

North Korean authorities have set 2012 as a deadline for attaining the status of “a strong and prosperous nation.”