NGA Tearline: A Snapshot of North Korea's Supply Chain Coal Activity

All signs appear to reflect the impact of the UN sanctions on the country, but also hint at a degree of infractions occurring on the part of the signatories by those closely aligned with North Korea.

What is NGA Tearline?

NGA is partnering with expert private groups to grow public-facing, authoritative open source intelligence on various strategic and humanitarian intelligence topics that tend to be under-reported within long-form format. This authoritative open source content will be cited for internal purposes and it will grow public trust by increasing transparency around shared public-private interest in various strategic and humanitarian intelligence topics that are fit for public consumption.

Learn more about NGA Tearline.

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Despite increasing restrictions on the DPRK's coal exports, the country's larger coal mines have remained active from 2015 to 2019 and improvements have been made to its coal supply-chain infrastructure.

This report takes a high-level look at two areas of North Korea's coal industry: 1) its mining in the South Pyongan Region, and 2) its rail coal transfer stations located along the Taedong River, which flows through the region. It also examines a few of the key coal ports and the rail transfer yards along the Chinese and Russian borders.

Read more of this intelligence report on Tearline.