Research round-up: DPRK minerals, military, and agriculture

Three items popped up on my radar this afternoon so in the interest of time I thought I would post them all together.  All three are worth checking out:

Status and Future of the North Korean Minerals Sector
The DPRK Energy and Minerals Experts Working Group Project  at the Nautilus Institute
Edward Yoon
Download paper here (PDF)

The minerals industry is of great importance to the economy of the Democratic People’s  Republic of Korea (DPRK), accounting for about 15.2% of its exports in 2005. (Chung, Woo Jin 2007, p. 3). In particular, the iron and coal mining industries have been priority industries for DPRK economic development since the 1970s (Korea Mining Promotional Corporation report, 2005). Minerals industries in the DPRK have been played prominent roles in North Korean National exports as shown in Table 1, below.  The DPRK holds the great bulk of the total known minerals deposits on the Korean peninsula. It is estimated that some 200 of the minerals found in the DPRK have economic values. The value of North Korea’s known minerals deposits was estimated to be nearly thirty times of that of South Korea’s as of 2005.

Mining industries are very important to the DPRK. The mining subsector of the DPRK’s industry accounted 8.3% of the North Korean GDP and about 15.9% of total export revenues in 2005. The minerals production sector in North Korea has, however, been struggling because of poor central planning and a lack of modern technology and equipment, as well as a shortage of electricity. For these reasons, North Korea needs to rebuild its production lines by obtaining proper equipment and technology (ibid, p.14).  As a result of the problems noted, minerals production in the DPRK has declined sharply in the past two decades.  It is estimated that production in 2002 was between one third and one half in comparison with output data obtained during 1989 (ibid, p. 12, and private source, 2010). In the decade from 1997 to 2007, DPRK  authorities have allowed foreign investors to participate in selected mining projects.  The  Government plans to continue its effort to consolidate heavy industries, and at the same time to develop light industries.

KPA Journal Vol.2, No. 1
Joseph Bermudez, military analyst for Jane’s Intelligence Review and author of The Armed Forces of North Korea, has published the next issue of his very fascinating KPA Journal.  Topics include: Wartime underwater bridges, KPA involvement in Burundi, Kim Ok Biography (Michael Madden), Type-63 107mm MRL.

The full issue can be downloaded here (PDF) and past issues can be downloaded at the journal’s home page.

CIA Assesses Flooding in the DPRK
CIA analysts studied data on major floods due to rainfall in North Korea since 1996 in order to devise a framework for evaluating the significance of such floods and their likely consequences for North Korean agriculture.  The analysts identified four principal variables:  the intensity of the rainfall, the location of the rainfall, the time of year, and damage to non-agricultural infrastructure.

“Rainfall intensity and geography of flooding appear to be key variables with the most impact,” their report (pdf) said. “Critical periods in the agricultural growth cycle — for sowing, growing, and harvesting — and the scope and severity of infrastructure damage are compounding variables that can magnify the impact of major floods in key food producing areas.”

All four elements were present in 1996 and 2007, when flooding produced the most severe agricultural impact.  But using the methodology described, analysts judge that the cumulative impact of two instances of heavy rain in 2010 “has been relatively low.”

FAS has posted a copy of the paper here (PDF)

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4 Responses to “Research round-up: DPRK minerals, military, and agriculture”

  1. DPRK4444 says:

    Hey curtis I found this article http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/MB09Dg01.html

    and there is another recent one as well from the christian science monitor about Egyptian-DPRK relations. Thought you would be interested

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