Mansudae Overseas Projects (Korean: 만수대해외개발회사) 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. 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.[3][4][5][6]
In Cambodia, the Angkor Panorama Museum was built next to the temples of Angkor. The museum was operated jointly by APSARA and Mansudae, with about half of 40 staff members being from North Korea.[13] In 2020, the museum was closed indefinitely due to international sanctions.[14]
Mansudae also worked on the reconstruction of the Fairy Tale Fountain [de] in Frankfurt, Germany, 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.[15]
References
^Dannatt, Adrian (April 22, 2009). "Art in the DPRK". North Korea Economy Watch. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
^ abcKirkwood, Meghan L. E. (2013). "Postindependence Architecture through North Korean Modes: Namibian Commissions of the Mansudae Overseas Project". A companion to modern African Art. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN9781444338379.
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