Gazing into Google Earth imagery of Pyongyang, Yim Dong-woo was startled by the pace of development unfolding on the screen. Socialist city on the moveFor starters, Pyongyang is unlike any other city in the world. According to Yim, who authored “Unprecedented Pyongyang” and “Pyongyang and After Pyongyang” as well as other papers on its urban planning, design and architecture, the showpiece capital can be analyzed through the prisms of productive space, ideological space and ecological space. By studying the capitalist renewal of Eastern and Central European cities as well as Chinese cities, one can gauge the metamorphoses that North Korean cities might experience, he said. Unlike South Korean cities that are administratively organized into “dongs,” or districts, in North Korean cities streets dominate the landscape.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer December 26, 2017 03:45 UTC