DPRK Chemical Industry

The basic direction for the growth of the chemical industry is to establish a production structure in which all sectors of inorganic and organic chemistry have been developed harmoniously on the basis of domestic materials and equipped with modern technology.

Close concern is paid to ensuring organic combination of and reasonable balance between the sectors of the chemical industry–inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, high polymer chemistry, fine organic chemistry, etc., and to developing new branches of the industry as required by the present era. Priority is given to resolving the problems of raw materials, fuels and food in line with global economic trends. Due attention is directed to producing vinalon, nitrogenous fertilizer, bioactive fertilizer and high-concentration compound fertilizer.

The chemical industry carries out regular adjustments and maintenance of its production equipment and systems, builds up its production capacity and ensures the domestic production of catalysts so as to normalize the production of fertilizer and vinalon based on Korean methods and basic chemical products. It presses ahead with its technical upgrading in the direction of reducing power consumption and removing pollution, and builds new chemical goods production bases fed by local resources under a long-term plan. In the period of implementing the five-year strategy, it strives to establish a C1 chemical industry based on coal gasification, create a carbonization process using brown coal, and perfect the sodium carbonate industry whose starting material is glauberite. In this way it ensures that the production of such chemical goods as methanol, synthetic fuel and synthetic resin is placed on a highly Juche-oriented basis.