Mansudae Overseas Projects

Mansudae Overseas Projects is a construction company based in Jongphyong-dong, Phyongchon District, Pyongyang, North Korea.^[1][2] It is the international commercial division of the Mansudae Art Studio.^[3] As of August 2011, it had earned an estimated US$160 million overseas building monuments and memorials. As of 2015, Mansudae projects have been built in 17 countries: Angola, Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cambodia, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Germany, Malaysia, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Togo and Zimbabwe. The company uses North Korean artists, engineers, and construction workers rather than those of the local artists and workers. Sculptures, monuments, and buildings are in the style of North Korean socialist realism.^[4][5][6][7]

Mansudae Overseas Projects
Chosŏn'gŭl	만수대해외개발회사
Hancha	萬壽臺海外開發會社
Revised Romanization	Mansudae Haeoe Gaebal Hoesa
McCune–Reischauer	Mansudae Haeoe Kaebal Hoesa

Notable works

Angola

Mansudae Overseas Projects constructed the President Agostinho Neto Cultural Centre in Luanda, Angola.^[8][9]

Benin

Statue of Béhanzin in Benin

In Benin, the company has built a statue of Béhanzin.^[10]

Botswana

In Botswana, it constructed the Three Dikgosi Monument, also called the Three Chiefs monument.^[10]

Cambodia

Angkor Panorama Museum was built next to the Angkor temples. The museum is operated jointly by APSARA and Mansudae. About half of 40 staff members are from North Korea. Unlike the earlier Mansudae's projects abroad, this time North Korea is attempting to make money by complementary sales of tickets and art. As of April 2016^[update] the museum is projected to be completely handed over to Cambodians in twenty years, unless North Korean profits stay low, and the time needs to be extended. The number of visitors to the museum have been meager so far. However, Cambodian deputy director of the museum stated in an interview that in the present day it is very hard to make money with museums, and he remarked that marketing of the museum has not yet started.^[11] As of January 2020, the museum has been shuttered indefinitely due to international sanctions compliance.^[12]

Democratic Republic of the Congo

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it has built a statue of Laurent-Désiré Kabila.^[10]

Ethiopia

The Tiglachin Monument, also known as the Derg Monument, is a 50-metre-tall (160 ft) pillar erected in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was donated by North Korea in 1984.^[13] The monument has fallen into neglect.

Germany

Reconstruction of Frankfurt’s Fairy Tale Fountain [de], an art nouveau relic from 1910 that had been melted down for its metal during World War II. Germany is the only western nation to have a North Korean-built structure.^[14]

Mozambique

In Mozambique, Mansudae Overseas Projects constructed the Samora Machel Statue in Independence Square, Maputo in 2011.

Namibia

Independence Memorial Museum (Windhoek)

Namibia is the only country to have commissioned four public works by Mansudae Overseas Projects.^[4]

• Heroes' Acre (inaugurated August 2002) with a statue of the unknown soldier near Windhoek, Namibia.^[10]
• Okahandja Military Museum (inaugurated 2004, closed to the public), located in Okahandja, 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Windhoek
• The New State House of Namibia (inaugurated 2008) on a 40.4 ha site in Windhoek.^[15][16]
• Independence Memorial Museum (inaugurated 2014), central Windhoek.^[4]

Senegal

The African Renaissance Monument in Dakar, Senegal

In Senegal, the company built the African Renaissance Monument.^[10]

Togo

Memorial of the 1974 Togo plane crash, with the Eyadéma statue in the center

In the north of Togo, there is a large statue of the late president Gnassingbé Eyadéma, constructed by Mansudae. The statue was erected close to the village of Sara-Kawa, where Eyadéma was famously the sole survivor of a plane crash in January 1974, and is part of a broader memorial to the victims of the crash.

Zimbabwe

National Heroes' Acre is a 23-hectare (57-acre) burial ground and national monument in Harare, Zimbabwe. Work began on the site in 1981 and used by Zimbabwean and North Korean workers. It closely mirrors the design of the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery in Taesong-guyŏk, just outside Pyongyang, North Korea.^[4]

The Joshua Nkomo Statue was constructed in 2010 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.