Is North Korea Going Green? The Strategic Potential of Algae Production
A new algal research facility just outside of Wonsan, North Korea, suggests growing interest in developing algae as a strategic resource to diversify sources of energy supplies and improve agricultural production, which could over time reduce the country’s vulnerability to sanctions.
The North Korean government is developing thousands of rural open ponds producing algae and bigger and more sophisticated sites whose purpose increasingly looks like algae production. The purpose of that algae is not immediately clear, but it is a multipurpose resource that can be used to produce food, fertilizer, feedstock and fuel all from the same biomass.