20x10 Policy

The Regional Development 20×10 Policy (Korean: 지방발전 20×10 정책) is a regional development program of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced in January 2024 under the leadership of Kim Jong Un. It aims to build modern industrial factories in 20 cities and counties per year over a 10-year period with the stated goal of improving living standards outside Pyongyang and reducing disparities between regions. In 2025, the program was expanded with the "Three Essential Projects" principle, adding plans to build public healthcare facilities, leisure facilities (including scientific and educational) and grain management facilities in target localities.

Background

Regional inequality has been a recurring issue in North Korea since the economic crises of the 1990s, with resources disproportionately concentrated in Pyongyang and selected provincial centers. At the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea in 2021, Kim Jong Un signaled a new emphasis on balanced regional growth, with Kimhwa County designated as a pilot site.

The "20×10" slogan was later adopted to encapsulate the nationwide expansion of this policy: 20 localities per year for 10 years, symbolizing both scale and long-term commitment.

Objectives

Analysts and state media identify the main objectives of the 20×10 Policy as:

• industrial modernisation through the construction of modern regional-industry factories producing food, clothing, paper, and other daily necessities,
• balanced development to narrow the gap between Pyongyang and rural provinces,
• integration of local factories with research and educational institutions,
• national self-sufficiency by reducing reliance on imports under sanctions,
• strengthening political legitimacy through visible economic projects, and
• regional self sufficiency of all cities and counties by laying a firm foundation for development.

Implementation

The policy was formally launched at the Tenth Session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly in January 2024.

Logistical implementation includes:

1. The reorganisation of a central committee mechanism for regional industrial modernization into a policy-focused "Non-Permanent Central Committee for Promoting Regional Development 20×10 Policy", responsible with promoting party-aligned projects and architecture.
2. Establishment of the "Non-Permanent Ministry of National Defence Group for the Regional Development 20×10 Policy", responsible for managing labor, building materials, and directing construction projects.
3. Mobilisation of Workers' Party and Korean People's Army units to provide labour, materials, and logistics (including creating a dedicated construction regiment).
4. Selection of the first 20 localities, including counties in Kangwon, South Pyongan, and North Hwanghae provinces, which began factory construction in 2024.

By early 2025, DPRK media reported on the completion of multiple facilities in the first batch of counties, including regional-industry factories which typically consists of: a foodstuffs factory, a garment factory, and a daily-necessities factory.

In February 2025, the WPK acknowledged that "the construction of regional-industry factories would not be enough to get rid of the age-old backwardness" of the rural regions, DPRK media reported. Thus, the authorities added the "Three Essential Projects" principle to the development program, which are to be pursued alongside the industrial projects. These projects consist of "healthcare facilities, leisure complexes and grain management facilities in all the cities and counties across the country". Kim Jong Un during the Ninth Congress of the WPK pushed for the implementation of the "Three Essential Projects" in 20 cities and counties every year "without fail", starting in 2026.

In practice with his predecessors, Kim Jong Un occasionally conducts field guidance or inspections of regional development policy construction projects in order to boost public morale and support the leadership's legitimacy. In 2025, he toured Kangdong, Sinyang, Pukchang, and Unsan counties' construction projects. In 2026, he supervised the construction projects in Ragwon County and noted that in order to further accelerate regional development, the 20×10 Policy should be "expanded and deepened in a gigantic way in the future".

List of projects under the 20×10 Policy

Reception

State media described the policy as a “historic turning point” in socialism, promising a “great transformation” in people’s material and cultural life.

External analysts have raised concerns regarding feasibility (sustaining operations under sanctions), centralisation of decision-making in Pyongyang, selection of strategically significant counties over poorer areas, and the long-term sustainability of new factories.

According to 38 North, the program, if sustained, could represent one of the most ambitious regional development drives since the Chollima Movement of the 1950s.

References