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Report: ChiComs eye Nork uranium
From East-Asia-Intel, subscription.
SEOUL -- China is demanding rights to develop North Korea’s abundant uranium resources in return for emergency economic assistance, a Japanese newspaper reported last week from Seoul.
Yer running up quite a tab, Kimmie, and we need some of it paid back.
But Yang Jang-Suk, director of North-East Asia team at the Korea Trade Promotion Corporation (KOTRA) said he could not confirm the report by Tokyo's Sankei Shimbun.
"I don't know for sure, so I will say no more."
Yang is in charge of South-North economic cooperation and has been negotiating mining rights for North Korean natural ore. “We did note a certain degree of reluctance on the part of our counterparts to make progress,” Yang said, “but I suspect it had more to do with the fact that they were conscious of the Chinese interest in exploring iron ore mines in the same area as we plan to invest.”
"And they were beating us to the punch."
Mineralogists say North Korea’s natural ore is more than 30 times that of South Korea's, both in variety and estimated reserves. The country has some of the world’s highest-quality tungsten and uranium. South Korean experts say the uranium mines in Baekchon, South Hwanghae Province and Sackju, North Pyongan Province, produce high-quality ores. They believe Pyongyang will exploit these reserves to develop nuclear weapons.
Hmmm...never thought of that angle...
Former Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young told a press conference earlier this month that Pyongyang is demanding a light-water reactor generator to utilize its uranium reserves for energy development.
"We demand a light-water reactor, or we will blow Seoul off the map, so what do ya say, southern comerade?"
Others worry that if China and North Korea jointly develop those uranium mines, a nuclear-free Korean peninsula will become a fantasy. “And they will certainly not advertise the fact if they develop them together,” said an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
A nuclear-free Korean peninsula is already a fantasy. /reality check
Not advertise? Kimmie's been shouting at the top of his short lungs.
North Korea last month stopped negotiating with China for a 7 billion Yuan [$868 million] investment in iron ore mines in Musan, North Hamgyong Province. Consequently, three Chinese steel companies -- Tunghwa, Juanggang and Yenben Tentz -- withdrew their investment plans.
We will regroup and talk to our PLA associates about the next move.
Pyongyang was reportedly angered that news of the plan had been leaked to Chinese media before Pyongyang had authorized the project.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Press Leaks, Kimmie.
According to Korean Mining Corporation, North Korea has been opening its coal mines to Chinese business interests. Pyongyang granted a mining agreement in South Hamgyong Province to a Chinese company to explore and import 20,000 tons of anthracite stone from the mine. The mine has 20 million tons of reserves.
And plenty of starving, unfortunate political prisoners to haul out the ore.
The Ryongdam coal mine, another coal mine in North Pyongan Province, which can produce 3 million tons of anthracite a year, went into a joint venture with the Chinese Wookwang business group early last year. North Korea exports $25 million worth of anthracite to China every year, according to KOTRA.
Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-01-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=140858