SOVIET EXPANSION OF THE KIMCHAEK IRON AND STEEL PLANT IN NORTH KOREA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T01003A000900290001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 27, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 20, 1960
• Content Type: BRIEF

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CONFIDENTIAL 2 9
CIA/RR CB 60-29 Copy No.
20 May 1960
CURRENT SUPPORT BRIEF
SOVIET EXPANSION OF THE KIMCHAEK IRON AND
STEEL PLANT IN NORTH KOREA
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND REPORTS
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This report represents the immediate views of the
originating intelligence components of the Office
of Research and Reports. Comments are solicited.
This document contains information affecting the national defense of
the United States, within the meaning of the espionage laws, Title 18
USC, Sections 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which
in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
CONFIDENTIAL
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CONFIDENTIAL
SOVIET EXPANSION OF THE KIMCHAEK IRON AND
STEEL PLANT IN NORTH KOREA
In February 1960, the Industrial Economic Gazette of the USSR
announced that the Soviet Union was going to oversee an extensive
expansion of the Kimchaek iron and steel plant located on the north-
east coast of North Korea in the city of Chongjin. 1/ This rela-
tively small plant, which in 1959 produced only 484,,000 tons of pig
and sponge iron, is to become an integrated steel mill by 1965 with
an annual production capacity of 2.2 million tons of pig iron, 2
million tons of crude steel, and 1.4 million tons of finished steel
products. 2/ Production at the planned level would be roughly three
times Nort11 Korea's total iron and steel output in 1959 and would
rank the Kimchaek plant as one of the largest and most modern metal-
lurgical enterprises in Asia.
According to radio TASS, the Soviet Union will furnish the
plans, equipment and most of the technical personnel necessary to
carry out the expansion program. 3/ Planned for installation are
four new blast furnaces ranging in size from 1,000 to 1,719 cubic
meters. The latter size furnace is 200 cubic meters larger than
any heretofore provided by the USSR to Communist China and is
equal in size to the three largest furnaces in operation in the
Soviet Union during 1959. For steel making, two 100-ton. top-blown
oxygen converters of recent Soviet design are scheduled for instal-
lation. These converters, over twice as large as any currently
in operation in the USSR, will have an annual output capacity of
750,000 to 850,000 tons of crude steel each. 4/
The program at Kimchaek is the first Soviet sponsored oxygen
converter plant, including oxygen making facilities, to be announced
for construction in the Far East. The oxygen converter process a
relatively new development in steel making, combines the low invest-
ment and operating costs and high production potential of the Res-
semer converter with quality control comparable to the open hearth
process. Its introduction at the Kimchaek plant in North Korea
will be an important technological gain for North Korea's metal-
lurgical industry.
When completed, the Kimchaek plant expansion program should
insure for North Korea its output goal of 3 to 3.5 million tons
of crude steel by 1965-66, which would increase per capita out-
put from the 45 kilograms in 1959 to 300 to 350 in 1966. 5/ This
is an amount significantly greater than anticipated for any other
Far Eastern country including Japan which will have an estimated
per capita output of 285 kilograms.- It is presumed that by 1965-66
North Korea will be able to export a substantial percentage of its
steel production.
20 May 1960 CIA/RR CB 60-29
Page 2
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CONFIDENTIAL
Analyst: 25X1A
Sources:
1. Promyshlenno-Ekonomicheska Yaa G, 5 Feb 60. U.
2. Korea Today, No. 39, 1959, p. 22. U.
3. SWB, Weekly Supplement, Part III The Far East, 3 Feb 60,
p. B/26 U.
4. Iron and Coal Trades Review, 27 Nov 59, p. 947. U.
STATSPEC 5,
20 May 1960 CIA/RR CB 60-29
Page 3
CONFIDENTIAL .
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 INCLASSI I D INTERNAL
li-RDP791 b~190'001?-0^ SECRET
SUBJECT: (Optional)
SOYIE
T E
FROM:
XPANSION OF THE KIMCHAEK
CSIP DRAFT' IRON & STEEL PLANT IN NORTH KOREA
Ch/St/CS
TO: (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
25X1 A.
Monitor
Typist
Prf?rf
Monitor
25X1I
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Author
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12.
ch/St/cs
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ROUTING AND .RECORD SHEET
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DATE
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