A new phrase “inauguration season” was coined in the DPRK.
It was in early 2024 that Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, unveiled the Regional Development 20×10 Policy. Since then, the DPRK has been pushing ahead with huge projects for improving the living standards of its regional people. The regional development policy is geared to building modern regional-industry factories in 20 cities and counties every year, or in all the regions in a decade.
Kim Jong Un ensured that a powerful construction force was formed and government measures were taken to supply materials and equipment, and provided constant field guidance to the construction of regional-industry factories. As a result, modern industrial establishments sprang up in 20 cities and counties between December 2024 and February 2025, bringing great delight and excitement to the people across the country.
In 2025 regional development gathered momentum in breadth and depth after Kim Jong Un suggested officially including the construction of advanced healthcare facilities, leisure complexes and grain storage facilities in the regional development policy as he presided over the Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK in late 2024.
These huge construction projects bore fruit at the end of 2025 with stylish industrial establishments, hospitals and leisure complexes built in different parts of the country and excitement building up among the entire population including the people in another 20 cities and counties where those facilities were built. In 2025, unlike in 2024, the projects were finished within the year when they were launched.
It is evident that such inauguration ceremonies will be held unfailingly at the end of each year in the future, too. In a word, the regional development policy gave birth to the byword “inauguration season.”
It is fair to say that this byword refers to the strong will and seasoned leadership of Kim Jong Un, who intends to make regional development represent the progress and development of the country and to make the true image of socialist Korea mirrored on the ideal appearance of the regions.