North Korea has executed a party official after they defied Kim Jong-un in the hope of getting an empty showpiece hospital opened to patients.
The dictator personally broke ground on Pyongyang General Hospital amid much fanfare in March last year, demanding that the facility be built in just over six months.
But his deadline came and went without a grand opening, amid rumours that the finished building was an empty shell, lacking basic medical equipment.
Now a party official has paid the ultimate price, after a workaround was proposed that clashed with Kim Jong-un’s vision for the hospital.
The tyrant wanted the facility kitted out with medical equipment from Europe, according to South Korea’s Daily NK newspaper.
Kim Jong-un personally broke ground on Pyongyang General Hospital amid much fanfare in March last year, demanding that the facility be built in just over six months
The hospital under construction last year. Kim had asked that it be completed in just over six months
A mock up of what the hospital in the capital was supposed to look like
But an alternative plan was made to use Chinese equipment instead – and the official was blamed when an ‘outraged’ Kim Jong-un found out.
The condemned man was a deputy director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was aged in his early 50s, and was responsible for importing and exporting, Daily NK reported.
An executive at the Ministry of Health was also dismissed, the newspaper said.
Kim Jong-un, who spent part of his boyhood in Switzerland, reportedly believes European-made equipment to be of the highest quality.
The party therefore allocated a large budget to furnish the hospital in line with his wishes.
But officials allegedly struggled to overcome European sanctions against North Korea and, due to the pandemic, also had difficulty bringing the items into neutral third countries.
It was then that a plan was made to use cheaper Chinese equipment that could be more easily imported.
However, a contract was reportedly signed before Kim Jong-un could approve of the change.
North Korea analyst Martyn Williams, who has kept tabs on the hospital’s construction via satellite imagery, said in January that sourcing medical equipment appeared to be the problem.
‘We cannot judge interior progress,’ he said.
‘One of the main sticking points will be procurement of medical equipment.
The hospital in September last year. The tyrant wanted the facility kitted out with medical equipment from Europe, according to South Korea’s Daily NK newspaper.
Scanners and the like are not cheap and North Korea isn’t rich.
‘I understand it has been asking foreign governments for donations of equipment but that hasn’t come to much yet.
‘Photos from Kim Jong-un’s visit to the hospital last July showed that the structure was largely finished, though most windows had not yet been installed.
A subsequent photo from September shows the exterior all but completed.
The tyrant originally ordered the hospital to be open by October 10, 2020 – the 75th anniversary of the day that the ruling party was founded.
But state propaganda hasn’t offered an update on the project since September, when it boasted that external work was in its final stages and progressing ‘at a rapid pace’.
North Korea’s broadcasting arm, Korean Central Television, even edited the hospital out of a December propaganda reel, according to reports.
Meanwhile, a government document listing ‘important national construction projects’ for 2021 failed to mention the project.
Mr Williams, a fellow with the Washington DC-based Stimson Center, said that the hospital is primarily a ‘propaganda project’ and he therefore expects it to be shown off as soon as it’s done.
He said: ‘State media has simply ignored it and the hospital has been dropped from news updates.
Kim is pictured outside the hospital in July last year
‘As it missed its deadline, it’s not a surprise that it dropped out of the propaganda, but I expect they will get back to it and it will reappear in the media once it is complete.’
The hospital is not the first major construction project to fall by the wayside in North Korea.
The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, also known as the Hotel of Doom, was supposed to be completed by 1992, but the 105-storey skyscraper remains empty and unfinished today.
And a beach resort in the eastern city of Wonsan, dubbed the North Korean Benidorm, has blown through several deadlines without opening.