Kim Jong Un has imposed incredibly harsh punishments on the workers and bosses he blames for the failure of his show hospital.
The North Korean dictator began construction of the Pyongyang General Hospital in the capital in March 2020 and gave a state order for it to be finished by October 10 of the same year.
But things didn’t go according to plan, with Kim Jong-un criticizing project managers for “carelessness” just four months after construction began.
Kim demanded the change of several workers and bosses.
Now, nearly two years after the original deadline, the hospital is still unfinished, and Kim is handing out labor sentences.
The current project manager is one of several people believed to have been sent to gulags – North Korean forced labor camps where prisoners are allegedly held in horrific conditions – according to sources cited by South Korea’s Daily NK newspaper.
He was reportedly taken to the infamous Sungho-ri labor camp, which has a terrible reputation.
A defector who fled the country, Kang Chol Hwan, previously called it a “camp of no return.”
But last year, the camp was repurposed as a prison specifically for high-ranking officials and people working on secret projects.
A source said, “He was sent to Sungho-ri camp because he couldn’t be sent to a regular re-education camp.”
“So he should be able to get back to normal at some point.”
The verdict was handed down to the builder after an inspection at the KDC and the Central Prosecutor’s Office.
In April, a “serious shortage of rebar” was reportedly discovered at the construction site, and “someone needed to be held accountable.”
While the outside of the hospital is built, there is no medical equipment to begin treating patients.
According to reports, one person who tried to fix this by going against Kim’s will was sentenced to death.
They considered purchasing equipment from China, despite Kim’s insistence on European imports.
Another nine officers were “sentenced to three to nine years in prison for theft of public property” after shortages of steel, wood, cast iron, glass and tiles were noted.
The North Korean government has yet to bear any responsibility for any failures in the hospital project.
Instead, regime propagandists have gone silent on what was once supposed to be a success story.
Any mention of the hospital was reportedly redacted from the December 2020 newsreel.
The hospital was also completely excluded from the list of “important national construction projects” for 2021.
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