Kim Jong-un's First 2026 Inspection: A Greenhouse Farm Rising from Flood Ruins

Kim traveled by his private train to the Sinuiju Combined Greenhouse Farm the previous day, whose construction is nearing completion, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea has been building a large greenhouse farm in vast areas of Wihwa Island, an islet in Sinuiju where the North suffered a great amount of flood damage during the summer of 2024.

Since attending the groundbreaking ceremony for the farm in February 2024, Kim has visited the construction site five times, with the most recent visit made in late November, Yonhap news agency reported.

In a speech, Kim praised the builders for working hard "to transform the island area, once severely hit by natural disaster, into an ideal greenhouse town symbolic of the new era in more than 500 days," according to the KCNA.

"The huge construction project and assembly of greenhouse equipment have been completed perfectly and landscaping of the area is now progressing vigorously at the final stage," he added.

Kim also expressed his "firm will to more ambitiously plan the undertakings for the promotion of the wellbeing of the people across the country and radical transformation of the regions and strenuously implement them," according to the report.

Kim's choice of the site as the first field inspection of the year comes as Pyongyang steps up efforts to fulfill national goals set out at the 2021 party congress ahead of the upcoming ninth party congress.

At the next congress, which South Korea's intelligence authorities expect to be held in February, Pyongyang is expected to present another five-year plan outlining its major policy stances, similar to the previous five-year economic development plan adopted at the 2021 session.

- IANS