North Korean House of Cards

Table 7: North Korea’s Projects in Africa 458
Country Total Amount Projects
Namibia $66.03 million • Presidential Palace: $49 million
• Cemetery of National Heroes:
$5.23 million
• A military museum: $1.8 million
• Independence Hall: $10 million
Angola $54.5 million • António Agostinho Neto Culture
Center: $40 million
• Cabinda Park: $13 million
• Peace Monument: $1.5 million
Senegal $25 million • Monument to the African Renaissance
Congo $19.2 million • Basketball stadium: $14.4 million
• Academic center for athletes: $4.8
million
Equatorial
Guinea
$12.54 million • Presidential vacation resort: $800,000
• Government office building:
$1.5 million
• Luba Stadium: $6.74 million
• Conference halls: $3.5 million
One significant departure from his father was that Kim Jong-un, while
continuing to give personal gifts on special occasions, began the practice of defining
major construction projects as “gifts” from either the Supreme Leader or the Party
to the people of North Korea. Presumably, this allows Kim to maximize the impact
of funding from the Royal Economy on his power consolidation. He would be
able to not only pay for critical infrastructure, but also tie these tangible examples of
progress to his “wise leadership.” The chart in Appendix B below provides numerous
examples where North Korean media mentions the term “gift” or reveals the act of
Kim Jong-un presenting gifts to members of the North Korean elite. 459
As the regime scrambled to access Kim family funds from foreign banks to
offset the disappearance of lucrative sources, such as weapons sales and drug trafficking,
the Royal Economy began to stall, making it impossible for Kim Jong-un to
maintain the pace of gift-giving. According to a defector who has examined recent
458 Ibid. The cost of the Senegal project was updated to reflect recent work on the monument.
459 For examples of gift-giving under Kim Jong-un, see Appendix B.
Ken E. Gause
209