Kim Jong Un’s 20×10 Project Achieves Year One Successes

North Korea’s push to modernize its regional industry and geographically diversify its production base is off to a strong start. Just over a year since Kim Jong Un first announced the “20×10” plan, new factories producing clothing, food and household goods have opened in 20 cities across the country, and work has already begun on the second year of the initiative’s construction projects.

This article is the first in a series that will examine the 20×10 plan and its role in the overall regional development narrative in North Korea, delving into the locations of the newly-built facilities, what they are producing, and what is known to-date about the second phase of the initiative.

The 20x10 Plan

The 20x10 plan, announced at the Tenth Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly in January 2024, seeks to build regional production bases in 20 cities a year for the next ten years. The objective, as Kim Jong Un bluntly put it, is to “eliminate the century-old backwardness of regions,” and came with a bold promise to raise “the basic material and cultural living standards of the people in all cities and counties and … across the country within ten years.” Kim said the plan represented “another gigantic change and revolution, not just empty words.”

The 20x10 plan was launched as the nation was in the midst of two other major development projects: the initiative to bring 50,000 new apartments to Pyongyang between 2021 and 2025, and an ongoing campaign to replace outdated and dilapidated rural housing with modern, new homes.

If distributed evenly over the next ten years, the 20x10 project should mean every county in North Korea gets at least one new factory or facility.

Project Origins

The inspiration for the project can be traced back to heavy flooding that hit several regions of North Korea in August 2020. Among the areas most affected included Kimhwa Country in Kangwon Province, where almost a meter of rain fell. According to North Korean state media, over 1,000 houses were destroyed, and the infrastructure was badly damaged.

Kim Jong Un visited the site in October of that year, shortly after the disaster, to guide the reconstruction. While he was there, he called for the modernization of local industrial facilities to help the local economy and improve people’s lives.

By the end of 2020, people were moving into new houses in Kimhwa, but it wasn’t until June 2022 that new factories were inaugurated. Four were built: a food factory, clothing factory, daily goods factory and a paper mill.

Kim revisited Kimhwa in February 2024, about three weeks after announcing the 20x10 plan, reportedly to “learn once again about the modernization and management of the regional-industry factories.”

While positive on the impact the factories were having, Kim criticized the design and layout and said “considerable mistakes” were made in the architectural design and that they were not practical. “He gave detailed instructions on the design of industrial buildings,” state media reported.

Groundbreaking

On February 29, 2024, the regional development project moved from the planning to the construction phase when a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Songchon. Kim Jong Un attended the ceremony and spoke to hundreds of local residents and soldiers, who were charged with building the factories.

Construction and Opening

Throughout 2024, construction projects sprung up in 20 locations across the country, resulting in new factories  in every province except for Rason and Pyongyang. Kim visited several of the sites during the year.

In November 2024, he returned to Songchon and, likely much to the relief of local party leaders, was satisfied with the area’s progress.

On December 20, Kim made his third announced trip to the site to inaugurate the factories. Hundreds of local residents attended the ceremony and looked around the three factories, charged with production of food, clothing and daily necessities.

While Kim has not reportedly attended other openings, similar inauguration ceremonies were held at the other 19 currently-completed sites with the most recent taking place on February 11, 2025, in Kim Hyong Jik, Ryanggang province. With that ceremony, the first year of the 20x10 plan was declared an initial success.

But further tasks lie ahead for each of the factories if the plan is to be a long-term success. The factories need to ensure sufficient supply of raw materials and maintain quality levels if production and demand for the goods continues. Kim outlined both issues in several speeches during 2024 but did not offer any solutions, instead saying the responsibility was up to local party officials.

“If the factories fail to run on a normal footing owing to shortage of raw and other materials or any other problems after their production buildings have been set up in a splendid way and equipped with modern facilities, it will be a crime before the Party and the state, the people and the soldier builders,” he said at the Songchon groundbreaking.

We will examine the 20 sites and factories in more depth in subsequent installments of this series.

Future Plans

While the 2024 projects were focused solely on factories, there is greater diversity among the planned (to date) 2025 locations.

In Kangdong, for instance, on the eastern outskirts of Pyongyang, a hospital and leisure center are planned. In Ryonggang near Nampho port, a hospital and factories will be built. State media has also announced a hospital for Kusong and leisure center for Jongphyong. In Ragwon, an offshore fish farm will be built.

When Kim Jong Un originally announced the 20x10 plan, he spoke of “regional industrial development” and gave the impression the project was very much centered around factories. However, later in his speech, long after speaking of the 20x10 project, he called for additional work on better hospitals as well. What more will be included in the full scope of the regional development plan is unclear, but progress against this ambitious initiative seems to be moving at a consistent pace.