By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) -&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean leader&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;Jong Un has mobilised&nbsp;young&nbsp;labourers&nbsp;to launch a&nbsp;new&nbsp;housing&nbsp;project in Pyongyang, state media said on Sunday, as he pushes for an ambitious&nbsp;plan&nbsp;to build 50,000 homes in the capital despite deepening&nbsp;economic&nbsp;hardships.
Kim&nbsp;attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction project in Pyongyang's Sopo district on Saturday with thousands of&nbsp;young&nbsp;labourers, the official KCNA&nbsp;news agency reported.
In 2021,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;unveiled a&nbsp;plan&nbsp;to build 50,000&nbsp;new&nbsp;homes in Pyongyang by 2025, and state media reported the completion of the first 10,000&nbsp;new&nbsp;apartments last year, including a 80-floor skyscraper.
The&nbsp;plan&nbsp;came after South Korea warned of a deepening food crisis in the isolated&nbsp;North&nbsp;amid&nbsp;sanctions over its weapons programmes and the fallout from COVID-19 lockdowns, including a recent surge in deaths from starvation in some countryside regions.
North&nbsp;Korea has not confirmed any food shortages but the ruling party has scheduled a meeting for late February to discuss agricultural development, calling it a "very important and urgent task."
Kim&nbsp;has said the&nbsp;housing&nbsp;projects faces "unprecedentedly harsh challenges." He mobilised the&nbsp;young&nbsp;labour units, called dolgyeokdae or "Shock Brigade," in his pet infrastructure initiatives which have often faced lacklustre progress&nbsp;amid&nbsp;resources shortages, including a massive&nbsp;housing&nbsp;campaign in the&nbsp;northern alpine town of Samjiyon.
In Sopo, he aims to create a "distinctive street" with about 4,100 homes, in addition to a recently launched drive for 10,000 apartments,&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;said, thanking some 100,000&nbsp;young&nbsp;men who volunteered to join the&nbsp;plans.
The&nbsp;new&nbsp;housing&nbsp;project would serve as "another proud page in the history of youth movements" and a symbol of the country's socialist revolution and "political struggle,"&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;said.
"The distinctive architectures of this street will intuitively show our nation's status and rapid development,"&nbsp;Kim&nbsp;said, accompanied by his&nbsp;young&nbsp;daughter who has appeared recently in a series of major events.
"It will clearly prove it to the world how our movement and struggle are advancing and developing and how vigorously they are expanding even in the face of the most arduous trials and difficulties," he added.
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(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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North Korea's Kim mobilises young labourers in new housing plan amid economic woes