SEOUL, March 18 (UPI) -- Kim Jong Un has ordered the construction of a second street dedicated to Pyongyang's scientists -- a group of professionals who have been the toast of the country since the launch of an orbiting satellite in February.
The street, to be named "Avenue of Dawn," is to be built in a similar style to a street dedicated to "future scientists" completed last October, South Korean news service News 1 reported.
Pyongyang's state news agency KCNA said, "Comrade Kim Jong Un has proclaimed on site the construction of the 'Avenue of Dawn' between the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and the Ryong Hong intersection [in Pyongyang] and has proposed a foundational task."
The street is to include various buildings -- mostly residences for North Korean scientists, including researchers and educators at Kim Il Sung University.
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Kim said the new project is to serve as a yardstick for North Korean architecture aligned with its national ideology of self-reliance, which is "making leaps day by day."
The street should be built to suit a "civilized socialist nation, and transform Pyongyang into a city of even more magnificent splendor," Kim reportedly said.
The residential complex is to include various amenities, lavish by North Korean standards, that include a laundromat, a daycare center and a kindergarten.
The first phase of construction completed in 2015 reportedly cost $88.4 million, a significant sum of money in a country with a gross national income of $29.8 billion.
Kim also said the street's buildings are to be constructed with the environment in mind, with "energy-saving 21st century" technology, and a "rooftop that can control for temperature" through solar panels.
