ABSTRACT
Among all the countries that acquired independence after the Second World War, North Korea was one of those that had achieved the most with regard to industrialization. While the southern half of the Korean peninsula is well suited to agriculture, the northern half is more barren but with rich mineral deposits. During the Japanese occupation, mining activities and industrialization had been launched on a considerable scale, and this had naturally been concentrated in the northern part. Then, during the Korean war, the country was devastated. Armaments factories and other production went literally underground and was, to a large extent, sited in old mines.
