Whether or not North Korea hacked Sony Pictures remains to be seen — the latest news is pointing elsewhere in the case that has fueled international focus around freedom of expression and the film, The Interview.
Always secretive about its industrial might, North Korea does have a fairly robust steelmaking capacity of about 12 million mt/year. Here’s a look:
According to The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI.org) a nonprofit, nonpartisan group, the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex is North Korea’s largest steel mill, producing about 6 million mt/year of steel and iron, or about half of North Korea’s total output.
In 1975, the Soviet Union provided technology and equipment for primary steelmaking and hot- and cold-rolled steel products. The Soviet Union provided further assistance during the 1980s, such as a 100-mt basic oxygen converter, but Russia stopped supplying coke after Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994.
In 1996, the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex installed equipment to produce low-carbon steel and pig iron without coke. At the time, there were reports that coke shortages and possibly other problems caused the facility to operate well below its capacity during the 1990s. Kim Jong Il visited the facility in August 2000 and stressed the need to modernize the complex. Production processes at the facility were upgraded to increase production in 2001.
North Korea also operates the following steel mills: The Hwanghae Iron and Steel Complex in Songnim, North Hwanghae Province; the Songjin Steel Complex in Kimch’aek, North Hamgyong Province; Ch’ollima Steel in Namp’o; the Ch’ongjin Ironworks in Ch’ongjin, North Hamgyong Province; the 4.13 Ironworks in Namp’o; the No. 8 Ironworks in Songgan-kun, Chagang Province; and the Taedonggang Ironworks.
North Korea is one of the world’s “most centrally directed and least open economies,” according to the CIA’s most recent World Factbook, and “faces chronic economic problems.” As a result, the CIA contends that North Korea’s “industrial and power output have stagnated for years at a fraction of pre-1990 levels.”
The country also has estimated iron ore reserves of 400 million tons and according to Western estimates, annual iron ore output increased from 8 million tons in 1985 to 10 million tons in the 1990s.
Source: Platts
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