North Korea has been forcing its residents to share a bill for completing a new town construction project ahead of the birthday of the country's late founder, Kim Il-sung, to make up fund shortages caused by international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs, a North Korean defectors group claimed Monday.

Citing a source in the North, Kim Heung-kwang, a North Korean defector and executive director of the Seoul-based dissidents' group North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, said, "A setback in the construction of Ryomyong Street due to fund shortages has prompted the North Korean authorities to coerce its residents into accepting the burden of additional taxes."
 

According to Kim, the ruling Rodong Party has ordered institutions, plants, collective farms and neighborhood units to each foot a bill of $1,000, or the cost of building an apartment on the street, and the instruction has been delivered to the residents.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the completion of the new residential district building project in Pyongyang "at any cost" by the birthday of his late grandfather in April, the North's state media said last month.

The North's ruling party organ Rodong Sinmun reported on Wednesday 99 percent of the final construction of apartment interiors on the street has been finished, as the entire Ryomyong Street project is in its final stage.

In January, Kim also conducted an inspection of the construction site of Ryomyong Street before the Day of the Sun, the birthday of the country's founder Kim Il-sung, which falls on April 15, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Ryomyong Boulevard connects the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, which holds the embalmed bodies of the leader’s father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung, with a Tower of Eternal Life -- one of many in North Korea. (Yonhap)