January/February 2006
Grid-locked North Korea needs energy. But can the parties negotiating a solution to the nuclear crisis come up with a viable way to plug in the North? http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=jf06hayes
By Peter Hayes, David von Hippel, Jungmin Kang, Tatsujiro Suzuki, Richard Tanter, and Scott Bruce
January/February 2006 pp. 52-58 (vol. 62, no. 01) © 2006 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Nighttime satellite images sparkle with the bright city lights of South Korea and Japan, while neighboring North Korea remains shrouded in darkness. The country's energy needs are dire: 23 million people struggle to get by on 2 gigawatts of energy (less power than the amount consumed by a single U.S. city of 1 million people). North Korea's energy shortage likely contributed to its mid-1990s famine, when electric irrigation pumps and threshers stopped working. Factories throughout the country stand idle, and homes sometimes receive as little as two hours of electricity per day. Many have come to rely on candles and wood-burning stoves. http://www.thebulletin.org/article.php?art_ofn=jf06hayes