North Korean energy shortages
North Korea faces significant energy shortages primarily due to its reliance on coal and hydroelectric power, which have become increasingly inefficient and inadequate to meet the country's needs. The energy crisis has grown since the mid-1990s, exacerbated by a combination of isolationist policies, poor infrastructure, and environmental challenges, such as droughts affecting hydroelectric power generation. The country's autarkic approach, rooted in its juche ideology, has hindered technological advancement and investment in the energy sector, leading to a decline in coal production and outdated power facilities.
While North Korea possesses abundant coal resources, producing over 80% of its energy, output has halved since the early 1990s. Hydroelectric power, constituting over half of energy production in 2022, suffers from seasonal fluctuations and a disconnected national grid. Despite efforts to develop nuclear power as an alternative energy source, the focus on military applications and weapons development diverts resources away from addressing energy needs. In recent years, limited imports of oil from China have provided some relief, but overall energy production remains stagnant, contributing to ongoing economic hardships and challenges in sustaining industrial growth.
North Korean energy shortages
Official Name: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Summary: North Korea has obtained its energy mainly from coal and hydroelectric power. As of the mid-2020s, North Korea had severe energy shortages.
North Korea occupies the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, which has remained divided since the Korean War (1950–53) ended with an armistice agreement. Since the end of the war, North Korea has pursued autarky under the juche (self-reliance) ideology. This policy has caused its isolation from the rest of the world and stalled the development of its energy sector. North Korea has been facing challenges in meeting its energy needs and developing its industries, especially since the mid-1990s.
For much of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, North Korea obtained its energy mainly from coal and hydroelectric power. Insufficient investment in new technology and innovation, however, has led these sectors to become obsolete and inefficient, and periodic drought threatens the stability of energy output from hydroelectric sources. Although North Korea’s nuclear ambition is directly related to its program to develop nuclear weapons for security purposes, nuclear power has been pursued as an alternative energy source to deal with these challenges as well. However, the country’s development of its ballistic missile and nuclear program takes away much needed resources for investments in industrial and power outputs, which have stagnated at a fraction of pre-1990s levels.
History of North Korea’s Energy Sector
The northern part of the Korean Peninsula has relatively abundant coal and hydropower resources. During the Japanese colonial rule over the Korean peninsula (1919–45), these resources were heavily exploited for energy generation. As a result, the northern part of the peninsula supplied most of the electricity used in the peninsula before its division.
Since North Korea was founded in 1948, the country has industrialized itself rapidly by using the energy and industrial infrastructure built during the colonial period. To feed its industrialization, North Korea established the national power grid by the late 1950s. Also starting in the 1950s, North Korea began to pay attention to nuclear power as the country sought more advanced energy generation techniques and nuclear weapons. Moreover, its abundant coal resources were widely used for modernization. Coal power plants were built near the country’s industrial centers throughout the 1970s and helped North Korea’s fast industrialization until the early 1970s.
In the early 1990s, many power plants were under construction, including hydroelectric plants and thermal power plants. Four large hydroelectric power plants were built during this time. Several of them were built, with the assistance of China, near the Yalu River, which is on the border with China. Nevertheless, since the 1990s, North Korea has been suffering from a chronic energy shortage. Several factors explain this shortfall. First, the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and its communist bloc countries led to a transition to capitalist economies and thus has affected those countries’ trading relationships with North Korea.
When it comes to the exchange in the energy sector, this meant that North Korea could no longer import oil at a reduced price from its former allies. Research and technological exchanges also came to a standstill. Second, in East Asia, China adopted a policy of economic reform in the late 1970s and accelerated the reform in the early 1990s. This transition of its former communist allies to market economies caused the isolation of North Korea, which refused to undertake such changes. Finally, North Korea suffered a series of massive floods in the mid-1990s, which caused problems in coal and hydroelectric energy generation. These factors together have dealt a serious blow to North Korea’s economic growth and development.
Status of Energy Sources
North Korea has abundant coal resources, with ten times more coal reserves than South Korea. Even though the quality of coal is poor, its abundance has allowed the country to be mostly self-sufficient. Coal takes up more than 80 percent of the country’s energy production, which is the highest ratio in the world. Nearly all the energy produced by coal is consumed by the industrial sector. The production of coal has rapidly decreased since the early 1990s, however, and North Korea now produces less than half of the amount of coal it produced then. In 2022, it produced 21.747 million metric tons of coal. The dramatic decline in coal production has dealt a serious blow to the country’s economic recovery. In addition, existing mines are not yielding as much coal as before. Moreover, most of the coal-fired power plants and coal mines are old, and their final products are of low quality, not to mention environmentally harmful. Management failures and mine-related accidents are also common.
Hydroelectric Power
North Korea’s mountainous terrain creates suitable conditions for dam construction. Dams have been built since the colonial period and provided a substantial amount of energy by the 1960s. However, hydroelectric power has been subject to seasonal fluctuations, and a poorly connected national grid system has caused transmission problems. Thousands of midsize and small dams have been built to meet the energy needs of small factories in local areas and households. However, as with other types of energy sources, the amount of hydroelectric energy generation has decreased since the mid-1990s. North Korea's hydroelectricity comprised more than 57 percent of the country's energy production in 2022.
Oil is consumed mainly by the transport sector. As of 2024, the country had no proven reserves of petroleum and other liquids. It once imported oil from China and Russia at reduced prices, but this ended after the Cold War. However, North Korea still imported oil from China, an amount estimated at roughly 10,000 to 11,000 barrels per day. All imported oil was sent to the Ponghwa refinery, the only one in North Korea.
Nuclear Power
Nuclear power serves dual functions for North Korea. One is to provide an alternative to its aging and inefficient coal and hydropower energy generation. Nuclear power will help the country reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, including oil imports. Moreover, North Korea’s nuclear program serves as a deterrent to potential threats from the United States or South Korea. The country started to develop nuclear power in the 1950s. In the mid-1950s, North Korea signed a deal with the Soviet Union for research and collaboration. Its nuclear experts were sent to the Soviet Union for exchange and training programs.
This period set a foundation for North Korea’s technological development. From the 1960s through 1970s, North Korea’s research was in full swing. It built the first nuclear power research complex in Young Byun. In the mid-1960s, North Korea started exploring uranium mines with China.
Since the 1970s, the country has continued to expand its nuclear development programs and test its technology. In 1993, North Korea announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. To resolve this crisis, the United States struck a Geneva Agreement with the regime in late 1994. This agreement’s main elements included the provision of two light-water reactors (1,000 megawatts each) in return for North Korea’s suspension of its nuclear weapons program. Interim energy alternatives such as heavy oil were to be provided, while the two light-water reactors for energy generation were built. However, North Korea failed to comply with the agreement and resumed its nuclear program. In 2011, analysis of satellite imagery showed significant progress had been made in the construction of a new experimental light-water reactor in North Korea. The country has repeatedly tested nuclear weapons despite the condemnation of other countries, including China. In 2024, North Korea was estimated to have an arsenal of about 50 nuclear weapons.
North Korea first established a center for the development of renewable energy in the mid-1990s, and in 1998 it built about 200 units of small wind power generators. In 2001, the government also enacted a five-year plan to develop renewable energy. However, most of the renewable energy projects are still in their experimental stages. Without investment and technology transfer from advanced countries, development is not likely to be successful.
Bibliography
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Kim, Kyu-ryun, Minjok T’ongil, and Yon’guwon. Energy Cooperation With North Korea: Issues and Suggestions. Seoul: Korea Institute for National Unification, 2005.
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