The question is how is the percentage of the energy ( electric ) generated by method in the DPRK? Coal %? Water stations %? Others %?
Answer - in recent years the DPRK has refrained from giving detailed economic information because of the strategic importance of the economy particularly the energy sector. The DPRK takes the view that the less its enemies know the better .So there are no figures available which give a detailed breakdown and percentages.
In People’s Korea the electric power industry is of great importance for increasing economic independence and in the past to propel electrification particularly in rural areas
Whilst there are no detailed figures available at present, what I can say is that in the past ,before the emergence of new forms of energy production , the split between coal fired power stations and hydro power was 50-50 .
In the past hydro power had tended to predominate but this was problematic because of droughts in the summer and rivers being frozen in winter . So at the 4th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea which was held inSeptember 1961 President KIM IL SUNG put forward the policy of reducing dependence on hydro-electric power and instead of combining coal and hydro power .
The DPRK adhered to the line of self-reliance and Juche has built an electric power industry that relies on domestic resources rather than imported ones .
In the last few decades other forms of electricity generation have been introduced . In his speech to the 1st session of the 8th Supreme People’s Assembly on the 30th of December 1986 President KIM IL SUNG said that the DPRK should start building nuclear power plants . Renewable power sources such as solar , wind , tidal and geo -thermal power have been added . At the 7th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea respected Marshal KIM JONG UN said “The construction of power bases should be promoted on a long-term basis by giving decisive precedence to energy production over economic growth. We should put the main stress on hydropower, at the same time as rationally combining it with
thermal power to generate electricity; we should also increase the
proportion of atomic power generation and make active use of a
variety of renewable energy sources, with the aim of meeting the
national energy demand by ourselves. We should use the latest
science and technology to improve how energy is produced and
convert the country’s economy into an energy-saving one.”
Basically hydro power and coal remain the main forms of electricity generation but atomic power and renewable energy sources are increasing.
1. Has the DPRK ever been able to import heavy industry machine tooling equipment? What years was that possible?
From time to time the DPRK has imported heavy industry machine tooling equipment but because of the sanctions it has tended to be the exception rather than the rule because of the sanctions and blockade . Since the US and its lackeys started intensifying the sanctions on the DPRK in 2006 , it has not been possible for the DPRK to import heavy tooling equipment particularly because much of it could be regarded as dual use .
Back in the 1970s the DPRK tried to import a 2000 cubic metre blast furnace from Japan but its sale was blocked by the US and south Korea so the DPRK constructed its own blast furnace .
It should be pointed out that the DPRK has thousands of factories so footage showing imported equipment at one factory may not be at all representative .
2. Is the DPRK now self-sufficient in machine tooling, including making its own CNC-systems and other advanced machine tools incl lathes, etc?
The DPRK places great emphasis on technology respected Marshal KIM JONG UN said “The key to self-reliance and increased production is in science and technology.”
The DPRK has long had its own machine building industry which forms the core of the DPRK’s independent national economy .
The DPRK’s concept of the independent national economy envisages a comprehensive , integrated and many-sided economic structure capable of producing all goods needed for economic construction , improving people’s living standards and national defense . The DPRK can produce almost anything from a wristwatch to an ICBM or a nuclear weapon.
In the late 1950s the DPRK developed a machine building industry . This was opposed by big power chauvinists and by revisionists inside the DPRK . However President KIM IL SUNG launched the “let one machine tool make a machine tool “ movement in 1959. 13,000 machine tools were produced . The DPRK was able to make an 8 metre turning lathe and a 3.000 ton power press . A 6,000 ton power press was produced in 1968 (???) and a 10,000 ton power press in 1985 .
The DPRK by the 1970s had a rate of 90 per cent self-sufficiency in machinery . Two Western economists Jacques Hersh and Ellen Brun in their book “Socialist Korea - A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development “ wrote that “ By 1968 the self-sufficiency rate in machinery was 98.1 per- cent, which means that nearly all machines needed in the
DPRK can be made domestically”
As for CNC , and I am sure everyone has heard the famous CNC song , the DPRK has been pushing ahead with CNC -Computer Numerical Control -for the past 20 years .The DPRK was actually banned from importing CNC machine tools under the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies of 1996.
In fact the DPRK started producing its own CNC machines in the early 1990s. Back in the 1990s Chairman KIM JONG IL paid several visits to the State Academy of Scientists and ensured that a National Conference of Scientists and Technicians was held . In April 2009 Rodong Sinmun, the daily paper of the Workers Party of Korea carried an editorial titled “ Break Through the Cutting Edge “ . Comrade KIM JONG IL said ““Break through the cutting edge!’ the fighting slogan that we should uphold at present”
The DPRK extensively introduced CNC technology throughout the country . The main CNC machine tool producer is the Ryonha Machinery Corporation which was sanctioned by the UN in 2013.
Some links
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