By Dagyum Ji and Oliver Hotham

March 27, 2017 - North Korea has discovered hundreds of thousands of tons of coal reserves at the Kaechon Area Coal Mining Complex in South Pyongan Province, state-run outlet DPRK Today reported today.

The North has put extensive work into extracting deposits of the coal in the northern part of South Phyongan Province, where the country’s largest anthracite deposits lie, according to data from the South Korean Ministry of Unification (MOU).

A DPRK geological institute deemed the area worthy of large-scale coal reserve exploration after carrying out “extensive and comprehensive geophysical surveys on coalfields located in the region”, Rodong Sinmun, a ruling party mouthpiece, reported in November last year.

The research institute published the research results during the 200-day mass mobilization campaign, which began on June 1, 2016 and lasted until December 15.

“A Pongchon coal exploration party of the DPRK has newly secured hundreds of thousands of tons of high-quality coal deposits in the vicinity of the Kaechon Coal Mine and Pongchon Coal Mine in recent times,” DPRK Today said.

DPRK Today said the amount of the reserves was estimated based on the results of the exploration project carried out previously.

The North produced 27,490 thousand metric tons of coal (around 30,255,388 tons) in 2015, 27,090 thousand metric tons in 2014 and 26,600 thousand metric tons in 2016, according to North Korea Statistics released by the South Korean government-run Statistics Korea (KOSTAT).

The team reportedly found a coal seam at a depth of 50m after carrying out surface and sub-surface exploration.

The tunnel was bored through with “advanced technologies including the water separators generated by compressed air systems,” which led to the discovery of the coal seams.

DPRK Today claimed that the coal seam – an area where a large amount of coal can be assessed to exist – was discovered in one shaft of the Pongchon Coal Mine by using “new drilling methods, introducing the diamond tools for drilling.”

After the discovery, the investigators found several more coal seams after examining and drilling the surrounding area.

“Workers and the expedition members are powerfully carrying out projects to modernize the exploration facilities and develop the technological levels based on the accomplishments and experiences as well as to secure more coal deposits,” DPRK Today said.

In a similar case, Rodong Sinmun reported in August 2001 that the North had discovered deposits with around 50 million tons of coal reserves in the Kaechon Area Coal Mining Complex after a one-month exploration.

The report said that 750,000 tons of coal were reserved in the Kaechon Coal Mine and 1.19 million tons of coal were found at the Pongchon Coal Mine.

But Choi Kyung-su, the Head of the North Korea Resource Institute (NKRI) in Seoul, said the DPRK Today report was potentially inaccurate due to the lack of evidence provided.

“I am not sure about whether the North will be able to mine hundreds of thousands of tons of coal as they didn’t give information regarding the method to calculate to coal reserves, such as the width and length of the coal seam,” Choi told NK News.

“The mines already have tens of million tons of coal deposits, and therefore the hundreds of thousands of tons were nothing compared to the original reserves, despite the amount that the North claimed to have found being equal to what they can produce in one year,” Choi said, saying the mine can usually produce 500,000 to 1 million tons of coal.

Choi also dismissed the North’s argument that they applied “new” drilling methods, saying that South Korea has utilized diamond boring machines “for a long time.”

Boring machine (Left) and workers (Right) at site of coal exploration

Photo by DPRK Today