Research On North Korea's Power Industry

Electric power is one of the most important energy sources for all sectors of the national economy and people's life.A country cannot develop without electric power industry.Stable electric power supply is the basic condition for economic growth.The shortage of electricity will cause a great loss to the country's economic growth.Since the founding of the People's Republic of Korea,with the great assistance of the former Soviet union,China and other socialist countries,the DPRK has made great achievements in the development of electric power production by utilizing its abundant water resources and coal resources.However,in the 1990s,the upheaval in eastern Europe,the collapse of the Soviet union and other sudden changes in the international environment;Coupled with the economic crisis caused by natural disasters in north Korea,the power industry in north Korea was severely hit,resulting in serious power shortage,and north Korea was plunged into a prolonged economic crisis.In the 20th century,the north Korean government took various measures to promote the resumption of power production,but still did not solve the problem of insufficient power.This paper analyzes the development process and current situation of the power industry in north Korea,and finds that the problem of power shortage in north Korea can be divided into internal and external reasons.The internal reason is that north Korea implements the policy of self-reliance and closed energy,which leads to the reduction of energy supply,the imbalance of power generation structure,the serious aging of equipment,the decline of equipment utilization rate,the high power loss rate of power transmission and distribution facilities,and the energy multi-consumption industrial structure with heavy industry as the priority.The external reason is that the collapse of the Soviet union and the eastern European socialist economic circle led to a sharp decline in economic aid to the DPRK,and the western capitalist countries also saw a sharp decline in economic aid due to the nuclear issue of the DPRK.If the DPRK wants to fundamentally solve the problem of insufficient electricity,it should first properly solve the nuclear issue,improve the international environment,and focus on economic development through the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy.In the short term,the international community can resume cooperation with the DPRK in the field of energy,and at the same time,it can make use of regional environmental advantages to provide the DPRK with the remaining electricity in northeast Asia of China,South Korea and the far east of Russia for compensation.In the medium and long term,actively expand and build new coal-fired power plants,introduce large-scale power generation equipment,increase the consumption of heavy oil,improve the utilization rate of coal-fired power generation equipment,improve the transmission and distribution system,and promote the development of the power industry.