Exclusive NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery finds 14th prison to be built or remodeled in last three years
North Korea is building a large new prison in the northeast city of Chongjin, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery, marking at least the 14th walled penitentiary the country has remodeled or constructed since late 2023.
The addition raises the country’s incarceration capacity and comes amid leader Kim Jong Un’s ideological crackdown on the population and reorganization of police systems.
Planet Labs imagery shows construction started on the newest prison in late February in the Pongam-ri area of the Ranam district in southern Chongjin, the provincial capital of North Hamgyong. A structure related to preparing the site first appeared in October.
The facility is a rectangular walled compound covering around 3.1 hectares (7.6 acres). It features five guard towers and what appear to be four U-shaped cell blocks inside that are each two or three stories — similar in size and shape to new buildings at other recent prison construction sites.
A temporary structure likely related to preparing the construction site appeared in Oct. 2025, but work had yet to start on the prison in early February | Image: Planet Labs (Feb. 11, 2026), edited by NK Pro | Coordinates: 41.72670° N, 129.72669° E
Digging began in late February on the foundations of the outer prison walls and buildings inside the compound | Image: Planet Labs (March 20, 2026), edited by NK Pro | Coordinates: 41.72670° N, 129.72669° E
Work proceeded rapidly, with multi-story U-shaped buildings, the perimeter wall and guard towers built by late May | Image: Planet Labs (May 29, 2026), edited by NK Pro | Coordinates: 41.72670° N, 129.72669° E
The new prison built in Hwangju features a wide drainage ditch surrounding the perimeter walls, possibly offering an extra security measure against escape | Image: Google Earth (Nov. 5, 2025)
A wall might be installed to partition the compound in the middle, like at some other sites, possibly to create separate wings for male and female prisoners or those convicted of different offenses.
Construction appeared incomplete as of July 22, but is likely only months away from finishing.
The new Chongjin prison is smaller than other kyohwaso (reeducation center) construction projects underway since around Nov. 2023 and reported by NK Pro, specifically those in Hamhung, Sinuiju, central Sariwon, Kaechon and Songgan.
It covers a larger area than the other new prison NK Pro found in Hwangju, as well as remodeling projects at the jails in Chonnae, eastern Sariwon, northern Pyongyang, Jungsan, Hoeryong and two sites in Kangdong.
Chongjin’s existing large political prison, known as Kwalliso No. 25, received small renovations in recent years but had not seen major construction under the current project as of this week, Planet Labs imagery shows.
While defectors have described kyohwaso facilities as housing inmates sentenced for ordinary crimes rather than overtly political or ideological offenses, some people have reported being imprisoned for attempting to escape the country.
Conditions at existing facilities have been described as extremely poor, resulting in frequent deaths of inmates due to starvation, freezing or illness.
Efforts to rebuild these existing sites will improve living conditions for inmates, but the total prison population in the country is also set to rise with the construction of larger cell blocks and entirely new facilities.
It is unclear if the new prisons in Hwangju and now Chongjin, or renovated facilities, will house people sentenced for anti-socialist ideological crimes in addition to ordinary offenses related to theft, violence, drugs etc.
Kim Jong Un emphasized his desire to “purify” society and eliminate all thought counter to his new “revolutionary ideology” earlier this year, while propaganda related to the constitution and laws has increased lately, in addition to the usual focus on party ideology.
In a likely related move, Kim also recently called for establishing the country’s first formally named police force by reorganizing the Ministry of Public Security, saying people should no longer think negatively of the word “police.” State propaganda often associates the word with Japanese colonial authorities.
The move was part of an effort to “subdivide and specialize the spheres of legal struggle in order to carry out public security maintenance work at a higher level,” Kim said at a parliamentary session in March.
Efforts to rebuild prisons kicked off about a year after a judicial system conference in Sept. 2022 where Kim and other officials expressed plans to “use our laws as a political weapon … to protect the party” and “wage a law-based battle to wipe out anti-socialism and non-socialist acts.”
State media has yet to report on the purpose and results of the prison project.
Edited by Alannah Hill