| / Courtesy of Google earch |
By John-Patrick Gerard Thackeray
With natural resources drying up around the world, an unlikely find in North Korea could redefine the country's long-term geopolitics in the region.
The recent discovery of rare-earth mineral reserves has created excitement for potential mining rights and increased income to upgrade the communist country's collapsing infrastructure.
SRE Minerals, a British private equity firm, estimates that the North could be sitting on a whopping 216 million tons of rare-earth minerals, which are vital for many high-tech applications, including clean energy, defense systems and consumer electronics.
China controls about 90 percent of the rare-earths market. It has large stockpiles after the central government relaxed environmental regulations, making mining highly economical.
North Korea does not have the ability to mine the minerals itself, so the Korean Natural Resource Trading Corporation (KNRTC) has signed a 25-year joint-venture agreement with SRE for the rights to develop all rare-earth deposits in JongJu.
The discovery has promoted China and Russia to increase their mining investment in North Korea.
Russia recently agreed to invest $25 million towards upgrading the North's railway system, in exchange for mineral reserves. And while China has denied North Korea's entry into the new Asian Infrastructure Bank, it has allowed Chinese companies to move into the region to work on transport and power projects.
North Korea can only benefit from this game-changing rare-earths find. By making sure it can communicate with countries and private companies, North Korea can capitalize through increased investment and infrastructure upgrades. These will not only benefit North Korean people, but allow North Korea to show that it is open for business in trade and tourism, allowing the country to be taken more seriously by governments in the region.
Korean Language
북, '뜻 밖의 자원' 발견
전 세계적으로 천연자원 부족현상이 점점 심화되고 있는 현 시점에서 의외로 북한에서 의외의 자원 밀집지역이 발견돼 화제다.
영국에 본사를 둔 희토류 자원 발굴 업체 SRE 미네랄스(SRE Minerals)는 북한이 2억 1,600만 톤에 달하는 희토류 자원을 가지고 있다고 추산하고 있다. 게다가 이 자원들은 청정 에너지, 국방 설비 강화 그리고 가전제품 발전을 포함해 다방면에 필수적인 것으로 여겨져 북한에게 있어서 더없이 중요한 자원이라는 분석이다.
현재 중국이 희토류 자원 시장에서 90퍼센트 이상을 점유하고 있다. 중국은 중앙정부가 환경 관련 규제를 완화시킨 후부터 자원 발굴을 더욱 효율적이고 경제적으로 하고 있는 것으로 알려져 있다.
이 때문에 전문가들은 중국과 러시아를 포함한 주변국들에서 현재 희토류 자원 발굴 기술을 자체적으로 보유하지 못한 북한을 위해 발굴 기술을 제공해서 이득을 취할 가능성이 크다고 예측하고 있다.