Pyongyang – The penthouse apartments at the top of the tallest tower in Pyongyang’s showpiece development offer impressive views, ice green wallpaper and purple sofas – but had no hot water when the project opened Thursday.

Ryomyong Street is the third prestige project in as many years in the North Korean capital, and by far the largest, said to have nearly 5,000 apartments, which according to authorities will be distributed free to deserving citizens.

Its name translates as “illumination” and the official KCNA news agency described it as “an icon of modern street architecture and a fairyland representing the era of the Workers’ Party”.

The white concrete towers come in multiple shapes – square, round and octagonal – and sizes, the tallest proclaimed as 70 storeys and 234 metres high.

Leader Kim Jong-Un – who made the project a priority – opened it Thursday in front of an audience of tens of thousands of citizens and an invited coterie of international media.

It was built in only around a year, to ensure completion in time for Saturday’s 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim’s grandfather, the North’s founder Kim Il-Sung – who lies in state nearby.

“Keeping up appearances in Pyongyang makes a lot of sense for the government” of the nuclear-armed country, said Chad O’Carroll, managing director of specialist service NK News.

“Part of it is renovating and increasing capacity in Pyongyang, part of it is to reward those loyal to senior levels of leadership, and part of it is of course for show.

“That’s the reason they have invited so many journalists here, to show successful completion of a project in the face of increasing sanctions and international pressure.” Kim’s association with the project also bolstered his domestic portrayal as “a leader that cares about the people”, he added.

A giant crowd of soldiers, officials and citizens – men in suits, women in traditional hanbok dresses – packed a plaza from early morning for the opening ceremony, waiting in the cold spring air for hours before Kim made his entrance, leading a delegation of senior officials and generals onto the dais.

“Long live comrade Kim Jong-Un, the supreme leader of our party, nation and army,” read one banner.

‘All day and all night’

Culture ministry official Kim Ok-Hwa was assigned to the construction project’s technical department, and said site personnel toiled for 18 hours a day, seven days a week, for a year, to finish it on schedule.

But she played down their role. “The Supreme Leader devoted his very best efforts so our effort is very small compared to his effort,” she told AFP.

Seeing him at Thursday’s ceremony, she said, made her feel “proud we have the greatest Supreme Leader in the world”.

Ordinary North Koreans usually express only officially-sanctioned views when questioned by foreign news organisations.

Personnel from North Korea’s army – among the largest in the world by numbers – are regularly deployed on construction projects, where they are known as “soldier-builders”.

“To implement thoroughly the order of the Supreme Commander we worked all day and all night,” said Lt-Col Kim Pyong-Ho, who worked on the 70-storey tower.

Staff say its hot water system is geothermal, and was not switched on for the opening ceremony.

But O’Carroll described the build quality on similar projects as “not so good”.

One of the apartment complexes erected to mark Kim Il-Sung’s 100th birth anniversary collapsed in 2014, he said, with the North admitting there had been casualties.

“It went up in less than a year, I believe, and it came down two years later,” he told AFP. “When you’re rushing to complete things mistakes will be made. It is a risk.”

Doha – With more than a million Filipino workers spread across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, it is small wonder that President Rodrigo Duterte has undertaken a week-long tour of the Gulf.

The migrants have been drawn to the region by a combination of factors – drug crime and corruption back home, and the job opportunities and wages on offer in the Gulf.

Duterte’s deadly war on drugs may have brought him notoriety in the West, but it has earned him the admiration of many Filipino expatriates anxious for change at home.

“I would happily say I’m a ‘DDS’, a Duterte Diehard Supporter,” Harry Ramos, a senior mechanical engineer based in Doha for 12 years, told AFP.

“His platform of government is simple, and he’s got the political will to do it.” Duterte’s populist agenda went down well with the Filipino diaspora in Qatar, where he received almost 80 per cent of the expatriate votes cast in last year’s presidential election.

Ramos, 58, speaks happily about how Filipinos returning home no longer have to bribe officials to get through customs, thanks to Duterte’s crackdown.

Life though has turned sour for some in the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia where 760,000 Filipinos live, and they will be looking to the president to defend their interests in his talks with the region’s leaders.

A collapse in oil revenues since 2014 has prompted subsidy cuts and delays in major projects. More than 5,000 Filipino workers were repatriated from Saudi Arabia last year and most are still waiting to be paid.

Duterte held talks with Saudi King Salman on Tuesday and was in Bahrain for talks on Thursday. On Friday, he flies into Qatar.

“He will discuss with these leaders matters relevant to the welfare and dignity of the Filipinos living in their countries, as well as explore avenues of economic and political cooperation,” Philippine Assistant Foreign Secretary Hjayceelyn Quintana said.

Four times the wages

In the bustling Souq Waqif area of the Qatari capital Doha, Duterte’s trip has prompted an air of expectation.

On a balmy early summer evening, with temperatures touching the low 30 degrees Celsius, conversation outside the busy Manila Supermarket quickly turns to the president’s visit.

Ray, a 38-year-old civil engineer, said he wanted to meet Duterte in person, something he could never achieve back home.

He admitted there was an issue with the poor treatment of some migrants, especially those in domestic service, but said life was generally good for Filipinos in the emirate.

“All Filipinos come here because they want to earn money,” he said.

“But, if they had to choose the place they will live, of course they will live in the Philippines, they will choose it. Definitely.” Ray, who has been in Qatar six years, said he earns “three or four times more” in Doha than he would back home.

Outside the Damascus International Gents Salon, hair stylist Jim, 27, said he earns around 4,000 Qatari riyals a month (S$1536).

Back home he would earn the equivalent of US$190 (S$265) at a barber shop, he said.

Twenty-five-year-old Sunshine, who works in promotions, had never left the Philippines before heading to Qatar.

Now she has been in Doha for three years.

“It’s better to leave first from the Philippines to earn money and then after a few years… you can go back,” she said.

A recent phenomenon on the streets of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong has raised eyebrows and confused stares: Young foreign backpackers begging for money to fund their epic trips in the region.

These ‘beg-packers’ are also buskering by playing music and ‘selling’ simple items in the hope that some generous bloke would pop up and shell out big bucks to fulfil their tropical dreams.

This has riled up some Asians who want them off the pavement, as they are flouting begging and labour laws of the country.

Asian netizens also accused the ‘shameless beggars’ of exploiting the locals, who are possibly poorer than them, and questioned why they need to beg when they could afford the expensive gadgets and cameras they are carrying.

Said one incensed Singaporean, Maisarah Abu Samah, who saw one Western couple selling postcards: “We find it extremely strange to ask other people for money to help you travel. Selling things in the street or begging isn’t considered respectable. People who do so are really in need: they beg in order to buy food, pay their children’s school fees or pay off debts. But not in order to do something seen as a luxury.”

Louisa, a Malaysian woman, told France 24 that such backpackers often feel they can behave in any way they want while travelling in an ‘exotic’ place.

She said: “I want to ask these tourists: What makes you think that this kind of behaviour is normal in Asia? Why don’t you do the same thing at home?”

Have you encountered any of these “beg-packers”? Let us know on our Facebook page.

chenj@sph.com.sg