Rural Re-electrification in the DPRK

Any effective effort to address North Korea’s famine crisis requires revamping rural energy infrastructure, which must include the substantial task of rural re-electrification— rebuilding or at least repairing the majority of the electrical distribution system, which is in a terrible state. This article uses the best available data to attempt to draw a picture, albeit an incomplete one, of the DPRK’s rural electrification problems and possible solutions. Improving electricity services requires investments in a variety of levels: in end-use energy-efficient equipment, in improved distribution, dispatch, transmission, and generation, and in human capital. Any investment in equipment must be predicated on a careful understanding of institutional arrangements, the structure of incentives that flow from these arrangements, and the plausible impacts of outside assistance on these arrangements and incentives. In all, the path to effectively addressing rural re-electrification in the DPRK is undoubtedly long and expensive. But the costs of failing to address rural electrification in the country are certainly higher, especially in terms of human suffering and lost productivity.