Energy critical power source within N Korea

In the depths of the North Korean winter, where temperatures regularly plumb -10
to energy, rather than nuclear weapons, during the past five days of North Korean denuclearisation talks highlights the critical challenge that power shortages present to Kim Jong-il’s regime.

North Korea has suffered extreme energy shortages since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main benefactor until 1990. Night-time satellite photos show the country as a black hole surrounded by Japan and South Korea – ablaze with light.

“North Korea’s power plants were already 40 years out of date [when the Soviet Union collapsed] but they can’t repair them because they don’t have the energy to make spare parts, which is causing them to deteriorate further,” says Timothy Savage of the Nautilus Institute, a think-tank that has done extensive studies of the North’s energy sector. “Their whole energy system is held together with chewing gum and baling wire.”

Financial Times