A report by a private research institute shows that if the two Koreas were to jointly develop the mining industry in North Korea, it could create more than 90-thousand jobs a year.
The Seoul-based North Korea Resources Institute says... out of some 700 mines projected to be in North Korea, it based its estimate on information about 74 North Korean mines that have deposits of 11 minerals including coal, iron ore and gold.
Apart from job growth, it says the project could help reduce South Korea's reliance on imports... and significantly raise its self-sufficiency in those minerals to above 40 percent from the current level of less than three percent.