North Korea’s Economic Collapse: Part 2 – West Sea Barrage
West Sea Barrage: How North Korea Wasted Billions on a Useless Dam
Today, we will discuss the second of North Korea’s three major blunders in the 1980s: the West Sea Barrage(Seohae Gapmun).
Please refer to the first post [here].
Let’s dive in right away!
Source: FM KOREA
The West Sea Barrage is a structure consisting of a 7 km long embankment and an 800-meter-long sluice gate, connecting Hwanghae Province and Nampo City. It serves both to block the Taedong River from the Yellow Sea and to act as a bridge connecting Hwanghae Province with Nampo.
The primary purpose of constructing the West Sea Barrage was to increase the water supply in the Taedong River basin, securing water resources. In fact, it is said to have contributed significantly to water resource management.
“Doesn’t that make it a successful project?”
Let’s first address some of the relatively minor issues.
First, the West Sea Barrage was built using North Korea’s long-standing tradition of “People’s Army labor,” completed in just five years.
As expected, the hastily constructed sluice gate was far from flawless, and ultimately, the West Sea Barrage showed a surprising lack of durability, with gaps forming in the breakwater and water leaking through.
So, how did they fix it?
??: “How did we fix it? We just kept repairing it by putting more soldiers to work, hahaha!“
If it ended there, we could just consider it another typical failure of North Korean speed-driven construction. However, I mentioned that this is a relatively minor issue, didn’t I?
In fact, the West Sea Barrage was a doomed project from the start.
In the mid-1970s…
“Hey, North Korea, don’t you think it’s a bad idea to take on this design? It seems like it’s going to be a huge loss, so I’ll just back out of the design.”
Initially, North Korea assigned the design of the West Sea Barrage to the Soviet Union.
However, after several large-scale natural development projects, the Soviets recognized the long-term environmental and economic repercussions of such endeavors and decided that the West Sea Barrage would ultimately be a loss.
Therefore, they withdrew from the design of the project.
But…
“Respected Comrade, the Soviets are refusing to design it because they’re worried about technology leakage. Should we go ahead and design it ourselves with Juche technology?”
North Korea’s overconfidence led Kim Jong-il to distort the Soviet’s advice, presenting false reports to Kim Il-sung.
“Alright, let’s proceed with the construction.”
Kim Il-sung accepted this report and insisted on continuing the project.
Once again, North Korea poured its national resources into the West Sea Barrage project. In a country with a GDP of $13 billion, North Korea spent a staggering $4 billion (30% of its GDP) on this one project.
Anyway, after this insane expenditure, the West Sea Barrage did achieve its goal of securing water resources to some extent.
However, unforeseen (though anticipated by the Soviets, but ignored by North Korea) issues arose afterward.
First, the construction of the sluice gate caused changes in the surrounding ecosystem, leading to a significant decline in fishery production.
“Isn’t the sea bass soup here famous?“
“This is pollack soup.”
The decline in fisheries was so severe that when Kim Il-sung visited a sea bass restaurant, they had to serve pollack soup from the East Sea because no sea bass was available.
Additionally, after the construction of the West Sea Barrage, the water flow became stagnant, causing the waters off Nampo to freeze every winter.
Furthermore, due to the presence of the sluice gate, ships had to wait for hours during half the day, significantly reducing the functionality of Nampo Port, which was supposed to serve as Pyongyang’s seaport.
Though these issues might seem relatively minor compared to the others, the fog frequency in the region also increased.
Given all the problems with the barrage, there are even jokes circulating that the project was actually built to prevent South Korean special forces from infiltrating via the Taedong River.
In conclusion, the West Sea Barrage, along with the Vinalon factory, became one of the major contributors to North Korea’s economic downfall. If reunification happens, it’s likely that this structure will be dismantled.
Still, North Korea, unwilling to waste the $4 billion invested, continued to promote the project as a success. When foreign tourists visited, they would show them the West Sea Barrage, proudly claiming it as a demonstration of North Korea’s technological prowess—of course, with a healthy dose of exaggeration.
Guide: “This West Sea Barrage represents the industrial success of our republic, showcasing our national status (and the country’s economic collapse). It also has a generator for power production (which it doesn’t).”
USER 1:
I thought Vinalon was the final blow to North Korea’s economy, but the Barrage isn’t any better, lol.
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USER 2:
Like father, like son, lol.
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USER 3:
Why are they so ridiculously incompetent, lol?
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USER 4:
Such large-scale projects are a means of forcing the people to work. It’s a way to waste time on useless things and take away their free time, preventing any possible coups or revolts.
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USER 5:
I heard that if they actually removed the West Sea Barrage, it wouldn’t cause any issues with the sea. Just like other big projects in North Korea, this was built by forcibly mobilizing people, including soldiers, to waste their time and stop them from doing anything else, in case they might stage a coup. It makes sense, because if they were really concerned about seawater flooding, they should have built practical embankments or barriers like in Hangang Park. Of course, they could have made a sluice, but they probably didn’t have the technology for that.
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USER 6:
30% of the GDP… is that even possible, lol?
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USER 7:
I heard many people died while building this.
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Today we discussed the West Sea Barrage. It’s deeply upsetting to see how North Korea’s excessive self-confidence cost the lives of many innocent people. What are your thoughts on this issue? Let me know in the comments below.
In the next and final part of this series, we’ll explore an even more astonishing topic—stay tuned! Also, if there are any topics you’re interested in reading about, please leave a comment. Thanks for reading!
