Kim Jong Un Builds More Mansions Despite North Korea's Food Crisis, Rising Tensions Against South

North Korea Kim Jong Un — TOPSHOT - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un looks at his document at a signing ceremony with US President Donald Trump (not pictured) during their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Even as he exhorts people to make personal sacrifices to endure a dire economic crisis, Kim Jong Un is adding to his extensive collection of opulent residences.

According to high definition satellite images analyzed by Seoul-based news site NK news, the dictatorial North Korean leader ordered the construction of elaborate new buildings at his lakeside estate in South Pyongan province as recently as last month.

Kim Jong Un's Lavish Lifestyle

According to Telegraph via MSN, images show construction work has recently been going on at a luxurious mansion complex that already exists on Yonphung Lake, a lovely location surrounded by forested hills that is off-limits to the general public. The project started in May 2021 with an ambitious 21,000 square meter addition and a four-story tower, but construction on a second 2,600 square meter new residence didn't begin until early September.

As the restorations have progressed, satellite footage also indicates a sizable construction workers' camp, suggesting that workers would continue to construct during the chilly winter months. The Kim dynasty has a long history of enriching themselves with opulent lifestyles and delicacies that are not available to North Korean civilians while pouring money into a nuclear weapons development that has led to crippling international sanctions.

The Kim family has continued to enjoy gourmet cuisine, premium liquor, and costly automobiles while ordinary residents have been denied access to essential household commodities and items.

For the approximately 26 million North Koreans who are deprived of essential supplies and products, the dictator's extravagant lifestyle comes at a high cost. Last year, Kim Jong Un himself issued a warning to his people about an approaching famine like to the one the nation went through in the 1990s.

Up to 3.5 million people are said to have perished in the pariah state as a result of the food crisis. The Kim family has depleted the nation's resources due to their extravagant lifestyle and pursuit of the nuclear program, as per MSN. As a result, the nation has been devastated by extensive international sanctions, which have mostly affected the general populace, while the ruling family continues to live a life of luxury and amass vast wealth.

Kim Jong Un Intensifies Pressure

Meanwhile, although there have been times of tension with North Korea in the past, the current state of affairs on the Korean peninsula is the most unstable in the past five years, and it appears that things will only grow worse. A provocative and aggressive act, the North's firing of a missile over Japan during the last month has forced civilians to seek cover.

It has fired hundreds of artillery shells into the sea that have landed in a military buffer zone established by the two Koreas in 2018 to maintain peace, launched a number of additional ballistic missiles, flown warplanes close to its border with South Korea, and engaged in other military maneuvers. Technically, the two nations are still at war.

Per BBC, both sides exchanged warning shots on Monday after a North Korean merchant ship violated the maritime border between the two nations. The invasion was deliberate, according to South Korea. North Korea often launches missiles for three reasons: to test and advance its weaponry, to convey a political message to the world, mainly the US, and to astound its domestic population and maintain support for the leadership.

Even if it might be challenging to tell which of these objectives Pyongyang is pursuing this time, Kim Jong Un has been explicit. According to several reports in the official media, the latest launches and exercises are retribution for military maneuvers being carried out by the US, South Korea, and Japan. Such launches, in the North's view, serve as a clear message to its enemies to stop inflaming the situation.

For the past two months, Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo have conducted large-scale military drills both individually and jointly to demonstrate their readiness for a North Korean nuclear assault. These have undoubtedly enraged Kim Jong Un, who has long seen such drills as his adversaries practicing an invasion. To prevent itself from being attacked, North Korea first began working on nuclear weapons.