Pyongyang General Hospital
Its groundbreaking took place on 19 March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its construction proceeded on the basis of a "speed campaign" with an expected completion date of October 2020, before the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Workers' Party of Korea.[1] NK News reported that the project had been agreed at a four-day meeting ending on 31 December 2019, which had "discussed and decided on the tasks to first construct a modern general hospital in Pyongyang for the promotion of the health of the people for the 75th Party Foundation anniversary".[2] After groundbreaking, several officials penned op-eds in Rodong Sinmun vowing to wage “all-night battles” for the hospital's construction.[3] The hospital is considered the first major project of the "head-on breakthrough" campaign, in the mould of the Chollima Movement, conceived in the wake of the failure of the Hanoi summit (and the corresponding lack of sanctions relief) and the subsequent downplaying of the five-year plan.[9][10] In April 2023, it was published that in June 2022 Kim Jong Un approved the hospital's interior designs as well as the uniforms of the medical staff.