North Korean leader Kim Jong-un participates in a groundbreaking ceremony for a greenhouse farm in Pyongyang, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Feb. 16. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un participated in a groundbreaking ceremony to build 10,000 homes in Pyongyang, the country's state media reported Thursday, part of the nation's five-year project to supply more housing.

Kim attended the ceremony for the second stage of the housing project in Hwasong District, Wednesday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North plans to build 50,000 new homes in Pyongyang by 2025 under the project announced at the eighth congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in 2021.

Kim has attended previous groundbreaking ceremonies for the project over the past two years.

"The project for construction of 50,000 flats in Pyongyang City is an important item decided by the 8th Congress of the WPK to build as soon as possible the socialist paradise," Premier Kim Tok-hun said in a speech at the event, according to an English-language report by the KCNA.

The North's leader also attended a separate groundbreaking ceremony for a large-scale greenhouse farm in the capital on the same day. The events marked Kim's first on-site field inspections this year.

The greenhouse appears to have been built on a former air force base in Kangdong County in Pyongyang, according to an official at Seoul's unification ministry.

The North has previously transformed an airfield in Jungphyong in North Hamgyong Province and the Ryonpho air base into greenhouse farms in 2018 and 2022, respectively, amid apparent efforts to make productive use of underutilized facilities.

The latest conversion was undertaken in line with those made in Jungphyong and Ryonpho, the official said. (Yonhap)