North Korea Sitting on $6 Trillion in Mineral Resources

North Korea would not be a poor nation if it were able to sell the estimated $6 trillion in minerals beneath its surface, reports the website Quartz.

Among the 200 minerals buried beneath the mountainous country are iron, gold, magnesite, zinc, copper, limestone, molybdenum and graphite. North Korea also has reserves of rare earth metals needed to make high tech products such as smartphones.

While a conservative estimate from South Korea's state-owned mining company put the figure at $6 trillion, a South Korean research institute has said the value of North Korea's minerals might be closer to $10 trillion, Quartz reported.

The isolated country made mining a priority in the 1970s, but it dropped off in the '90s, mainly due to its inability to buy new mining equipment.

Its communist neighbor China has been a large buyer of North Korea's minerals, but even they have joined in trade restrictions against the government of leader Kim Jong-un amid the regime's attempts to develop a nuclear weapons program.

Despite U.N. sanctions in effect since 2006, North Korea has managed to ship some of its mined minerals out over the years.

That has left most North Koreans poor while Kim and his top aides enjoy a lavish lifestyle.

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