Mansudae Overseas Projects
{{Short description|North Korean monument construction company}}
{{Infobox Korean name
|context=north
|hangul=만수대해외개발회사
|hanja={{linktext|萬|壽|臺|海|外|開|發|會|社|}}
|rr=Mansudae Haeoe Gaebal Hoesa
|mr=Mansudae Haeoe Kaebal Hoesa
}}
Mansudae Overseas Projects is a construction company based in Jongphyong-dong, Phyongchon District, Pyongyang, North Korea.{{cite web |last=Dannatt |first=Adrian |title=Art in the DPRK |url= http://www.nkeconwatch.com/category/dprk-organizations/companies/mansudae-overseas-development-group/page/2/|publisher=North Korea Economy Watch |accessdate=10 October 2012 |date=April 22, 2009}}{{Cite web|title=Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies |website=Naenara |archive-date=2005-02-13 |accessdate=2016-05-16 |url=http://www.kcckp.net/en/trade/trade-company.php?6+933 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050213003034/http://www.kcckp.net/en/trade/trade-company.php?6%20933 |url-status=dead }} 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.
Notable works
=Angola=
Mansudae Overseas Projects constructed the President Agostinho Neto Cultural Centre in Luanda, Angola.{{cite web |title=Agostinho Neto Mausoleum |url=http://www.angolamarket.com/index.php?page=view/article/83/Agostinho-Neto-Mausoleum |publisher=The Angolan Market |accessdate=11 October 2012 |date=May 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407081806/http://www.angolamarket.com/index.php?page=view%2Farticle%2F83%2FAgostinho-Neto-Mausoleum |archive-date=7 April 2014 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |title=Kim Yong Nam Visits Angolan Cultural Center under Construction |url=http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2008/200803/news03/27.htm |publisher=Korean Central News Agency |accessdate=11 October 2012 |date=March 25, 2008 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817135206/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2008/200803/news03/27.htm |archivedate=17 August 2011 }}
=Benin=
In Benin, the company has built a statue of Béhanzin.
=Botswana=
In Botswana, it constructed the Three Dikgosi Monument, also called the Three Chiefs monument.
=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}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://yle.fi/uutiset/pohjois-korean_tuorein_tulonlahde__taidekauppaa_angkorin_raunioilla/8710536|title=Pohjois-Korean tuorein tulonlähde – taidekauppaa Angkorin raunioilla|last=Mäkeläinen|first=Mika|website=YLE|language=Finnish|date=2 April 2016|access-date=2 April 2016}} As of January 2020, the museum has been shuttered indefinitely due to international sanctions compliance.{{Cite web|last=Sung-mi|first=Ahn|date=2020-01-05|title=NK museum in Cambodia closes as workers repatriated|url=http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200105000197|access-date=2021-10-20|website=The Korea Herald|language=en}}
=Democratic Republic of the Congo=
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it has built a statue of Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
=Ethiopia=
The Tiglachin Monument, also known as the Derg Monument, is a {{convert|50|m|ft|sigfig=2|adj=mid|-tall}} pillar erected in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was donated by North Korea in 1984.{{cite news |first=James |last=Pearson |title= U.N. decapitates North Korea's statue export business |url= https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-un-statues-idUSKBN13Q4Z8 |work=Reuters |location= |date= 2016-12-01|access-date= 2021-05-13}} The monument has fallen into neglect.
=Germany=
Reconstruction of Frankfurt’s {{ill|Fairy Tale Fountain, Frankfurt|de|Frankfurter Märchenbrunnen|lt=Fairy Tale Fountain}}, 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.{{Cite news|url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-06-06/mansudae-art-studio-north-koreas-colossal-monument-factory|title = Mansudae Art Studio, North Korea's Colossal Monument Factory|last = Winter|first = Caroline|newspaper = Bloomberg| date=6 June 2013 |access-date = 2016-03-18}}
=Mozambique=
In Mozambique, Mansudae Overseas Projects constructed the Samora Machel Statue in Independence Square, Maputo in 2011.
=Namibia=
File:Independence Memorial Museum.jpg
Namibia is the only country to have commissioned four public works by Mansudae Overseas Projects.
- Heroes' Acre (inaugurated August 2002) with a statue of the unknown soldier near Windhoek, Namibia.
- Okahandja Military Museum (inaugurated 2004, closed to the public), located in Okahandja, {{convert|70|km|mi}} north of Windhoek
- The New State House of Namibia (inaugurated 2008) on a 40.4 ha site in Windhoek.
- Independence Memorial Museum (inaugurated 2014), central Windhoek.
=Senegal=
File:Monument de la Renaissance africaine (cropped).JPG in Dakar, Senegal]]
In Senegal, the company built the African Renaissance Monument.
=Togo=
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 {{convert|57|acre|ha|adj=on|order=flip}} 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.
The Joshua Nkomo Statue was constructed in 2010 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
References
{{reflist|refs=
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Further reading
- {{cite book|title=Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies|year=2013|publisher=Foreign Languages Publishing House|location=Pyongyang|oclc=913431031}}
External links
{{portal|North Korea}}
{{Commons category}}
- [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-06-06/mansudae-art-studio-north-koreas-colossal-monument-factory Mansudae Art Studio, North Korea's Colossal Monument Factory]
- Tycho van der Hoog: Monuments of power: the North Korean origin of nationalist heritage in Namibia and Zimbabwe. - Leiden : African Studies Centre, 2019
- [http://hdl.handle.net/1887/52194 Tycho van der Hoog: North Korean monuments in southern Africa: Legitimizing party rule through the National Heroes’ Acres in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Leiden, 2017]