Tidal power among North Korea's new sanctions-proof energy technologies

Nampo, North Korea: Power-strapped North Korea is exploring two ambitious alternative energy sources - tidal power and coal-based synthetic fuels - that could greatly improve living standards and reduce its reliance on oil imports and vulnerability to sanctions.

Young joggers pass by as smokes billows from the stack
of the Pyongyang Power Plant in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Finding a lasting energy source that isn't vulnerable to sanctions has long been a top priority for North Korean officials. Leader Kim Jong-un used his New Year's address last month to call on the country to "radically increase the production of electricity" and singled out the coal-mining industry as a "primary front in developing the self-supporting economy." For the longer-term, he stressed the importance of atomic, wind and tidal power.

Read the story from The Age by Eric Talmadge - “Tidal power among North Korea's new sanctions-proof energy technologies.”