Kim Jong Un Demolishes Own Palace, North Korea Watchers Say

Several structures have been demolished at one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's luxurious residences, new satellite images reveal.

"The latest satellite images show that Kim Jong Un's Ryokpo Palace residence is being removed or remodeled, wrote the account @NobodyGerman, who first flagged the demolition on X, formerly Twitter.

Ryokpo Palace, located in a fairly remote area on the outskirts of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, is Kim's winter palace complex and serves as a stark reminder of the supreme leader's opulent lifestyle while the majority of North Koreans live in poverty.

Recent demolitions suggest possible transformations, including potential transfers of the property to military use, indicating strategic shifts.

According to areport by North Korea-focused analyst group NK Pro, the complex's "main residential buildings and auxiliary structures" were probably brought down between April 21 and 25.

The demolition work could signal the sprawling palatial complex will be put to new use, possibly by placing it under military control, the report says, pointing out that this would be in line with Kim's recent efforts to modernize his armed forces.

The report cited experts as saying the move could be related to Kim's designs to give the military an expanded role in national development or to consolidate military facilities.

The Kim regime has changed the country's constitution to label South Korea as the "principal enemy" and dismantled organizations tasked with promoting inter-Korean cooperation or pro-unification rhetoric.

Other casualties of the campaign to scrub references to reunification range from destroying a 100-foot monument built by Kim's father Kim Jong Il and commemorative stamps.

Newsweek has reached out to the North Korean embassy in Beijing with a written request for comment.

Pyongyang has also continued its steady development of increasingly capable ballistic missiles and is continuing its nuclear weapons program in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In January, the country performed what it said was its first successful launch of a hypersonic warhead. Pyongyang also fired hundreds of artillery shells near the de-facto maritime border with the South, prompting evacuation orders on a pair of South Korean islands.

Analysis of satellite imagery in March showed workers had constructed an annex at an alleged uranium enrichment site near Pyongyang. NK Pro pointed out that the structure is similar in size to facilities that housed centrifuges at the Yongbyon nuclear plant a decade ago.

Late last month, Washington and Seoul launched a task force aiming to restrict the flow of smuggled oil that fuels Pyongyang progressing nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The U.N. Security Council has capped refined petroleum exports to the country at 500,000 barrels per annum.