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North Korea Manufacturing
The machine building industry grew rapidly beginning in the
mid-1950s and had become the most important industrial sector by
1960. It supplies machinery needed for domestic industry and
agriculture, such as tractors and other farm machinery, as well
as an extensive range of military equipment
(see Military Industry
, ch. 5). Production levels since the early 1960s,
however, have been disappointing. The output of metal cutting
machines reached 30,000 units in 1975, but was far below the
planned target of 50,000 units in 1984. Output in 1990 was
estimated at 35,000 units. Similarly, the output of tractors in
1984 was estimated to be less than 40,000 units, below the Second
Seven-Year Plan target of 45,000 units per year. Annual
automobile production in 1990 was estimated at 33,000 units.
The quality of machinery generally is considered below
international standards. Some of the largest machinery plants are
the Yongsng Machinery Works and the Rakwn Machinery Works. The
Taean Heavy Machinery Works, built during the Second Seven-Year
Plan (1978-84) with Soviet assistance, is the country's largest
machinery plant.
During the Third Seven-Year Plan (1987-93), the government
plans to modernize the machinery industry by introducing hightechnology and high-speed precision machines and equipment. For
example, it was reported in 1990 that the H ich'n Machine Tool
General Works had completed a flexible manufacturing process by
introducing robots into the plant's numerically controlled
machine tools and that the Ch'ngjin Machine Tool Plant and
others were hastening to do the same. The Third Seven-Year Plan
calls for an increase of 150 percent in machinery output,
slightly higher than the claimed increase of 130 percent during
the previous plan.
Utilizing the country's relatively abundant iron ore, the
steel industry is a major industrial sector. The Kimch'aek
Integrated Iron and Steel Works has surpassed the Hwanghae Iron
Works to become the largest steel and iron center. The planned
annual production targets for the Second Seven-Year Plan of 6.4
million tons to 7 million tons of pig-iron and granulated iron,
7.4 million tons to 9 million tons of crude steel, and 5.6
million tons to 6 million tons of rolled and structural steel
were not met. Estimated output of crude and rolled steel in 1990
was 5.9 million tons and 4 million tons, respectively. Outdated
technology, a lack of coking coal, and the low purity of domestic
iron ore created serious problems for the iron and steel
industry. These difficulties forced the government to scale down
the crude steel target by the end of the Third Seven-Year Plan
compared with the earlier target of 15 million tons by the end of
the 1980s. Completion of the second-stage expansion of Kimch'aek
in 1988 reportedly increased the output capacity of the complex
to 5 million tons or more per year. New expansion projects
completed in 1989 added a 100-ton converter, an oxygen plant, and
other production and auxiliary systems.
Capacity expansion projects have been under way at the
Ch'ngjin and Ch'llima steel complexes. In October 1989, the
Large Size Stamp-Forging Plant of the Ch'llima Steel Complex,
with a capacity of 2 million tons a year and equipped with a
100,000-ton press, began operation. An expansion project
completed in 1989 at the S ngri General Motor Works quadrupled
the production capacity of the heavy duty trucks and plant
manufactures.
The French-built Ch'ngnyn Integrated Chemical Works in the
Anju District north of P'yongyang is the first petrochemical
complex designed to produce ethylene, polyethylene,
acrylonitrite, and urea. The nearby refinery at Unggi supplies
the necessary crude petroleum. The Eight February Synthetic Fiber
Integrated Plant, a large-scale complex, produces chemical fibers
and has an annual capacity of 50,000 tons. A synthetic fiber
complex in Sunch'n, the country's largest, began operation in
1989 after completing its first stage of construction. When all
stages are completed, production capacity is expected to reach
100,000 tons of synthetic fiber, 1 million tons of calcium
carbide, 750,000 tons of methanol, 900,000 tons of nitrogen
fertilizers, 250,000 tons of caustic soda, 250,000 tons of vinyl
chloride, and 400,000 tons of soda ash per year.
Light manufacturing has not kept pace with heavy industry.
Since the 1970s, the leadership has begun to admit openly the
backwardness of consumer goods in terms of quality and variety.
The government's stress on providing adequate consumer goods
continues into the early 1990s, but is not backed by any real
efforts to divert state investment funds from heavy industrial
projects. In his 1992 New Year's address, Kim Il Sung stressed
achieving the people's long cherished desire that "all people
might equally eat rice and meat soup regularly, wear silk
clothes, and live in a house with a tiled roof." However, this
was preceded by his exhortation that the most important and
urgent tasks for 1992 were increasing the production of
electricity and coal, and developing rail transport.
The textile industry, the most important light industrial
sector, utilizes primarily locally produced synthetics and
petrochemically based fibers, as well as cotton and silk.
P'yongyang, the site of the P'yongyang Integrated Textile Mill,
is the country's textile capital, but Siniju and Sariwn have
been gaining in importance. During the Second Seven-Year Plan
(1978-84), output of textile fabrics increased by 78 percent
registered an annual growth rate of 8.6 percent, and, according
to official claims, achieved the 1984 target of 800 million
meters. However, foreign estimates placed textile output in 1990
at only 670 million meters. During the Second Seven-Year Plan,
knitted goods, particularly those using domestically produced
acrylic fibers, were emphasized. Efforts to expand the production
capacity of knitwear continue in the Third Seven-Year Plan (1987-
93). By modernizing existing equipment and installing new
spinning and weaving machines, the government plans to increase
the annual output of textiles to 1.5 billion meters by 1993.
Judging from the 1990 level of output, it is unlikely that this
target will be fulfilled.
The Third Seven-Year Plan emphasizes synthetic fiber
production based on indigenous technology using coal and
limestone, and on the production of chemical fiber based on
petrochemistry. The government has called for accelerating the
expansion projects at both the Siniju and Ch'ngjin chemical
fiber complexes. The planned annual output target for chemical
fibers in the Third Seven-Year Plan is 225,000 tons while the
output for synthetic resin and plasticizer is targeted at 500,000
tons. Foreign estimates place the output of chemical fibers in
1990 at 177,000 tons. North Korea also has a chemical weapons
capability
(see Special Weapons
, ch. 5).
Since the early 1960s, local industry has been the major
supplier of consumer goods and foodstuffs. With the introduction
of the August Third People's Consumer Goods Production Movement,
in effect since 1984, the government's policy of developing
small- and medium-scale local industrial plants simultaneously
with large-scale, centrally controlled light industrial plants
continues into the 1990s.
Data as of June 1993
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