Kim Jong-un’s secret TRILLIONS which will fund his controversial nuclear missile programme for decades
Experts say beneath North Korea's mountainous landscape are minerals worth up to £8 trillion
TRIGGER-happy Kim Jong-un is sitting on TRILLIONS OF POUNDS worth of mineral reserves - which will fund his controversial nuclear missiles programme for decades.
Experts say below North Korea's mountainous landscape are vast supplies of iron, gold, zinc, copper, graphite and more.
Also present are large amounts of rare earth metals, which factories in nearby countries desperately need to make smartphones and other state-of-the-art products.
According to one estimate from a South Korean state-owned mining company, they’re worth over £5,000,000,000,000.
Another from a South Korean research institute puts the amount closer to £8 TRILLION.
The news comes as a hammerblow to those who hope to crush Kim and his military with harsh economic sanctions.
Pyongyang is already very adept at evading such sanctions, especially through shipping.
Last August Egyptian authorities boarded a ship laden with 2,087 metric tons of iron ore heading from North Korea to the Suez Canal - they also found 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades below the ore.
Earlier this year a group of UN experts concluded that North Korea, despite sanctions, continue to export vast amounts of minerals.
They determined, as well, that North Korea uses another mineral -gold - along with cash to “entirely circumvent the formal financial sector.”
Only last week the rogue state said it "fully rejects" the latest UN sanctions against its citizens as a "hostile act" and will continue its nuclear weapons development without delay.
The UN Security Council expanded targeted sanctions against Kim's rogue state after its repeated missile tests - the first such resolution since President Donald Trump took office.
The sanctions resolution "is a crafty hostile act with the purpose of putting a curb on the DPRK's buildup of nuclear forces, disarming it and causing economic suffocation to it," NK's foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement.
"Whatever sanctions and pressure may follow, we will not flinch from the road to build up nuclear forces which was chosen to defend the sovereignty of the country and the rights to national existence and will move forward towards the final victory."
North Korea has rejected all UN Security Council resolutions dating back to 2006 when it conducted its first nuclear test, saying such moves directly infringe its sovereign right to self defence.
The United States has struggled to slow Kim's controversial nuclear and missile programs, which have become a security priority given Pyongyang's vow to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
The Trump administration has been pressing China aggressively to rein in its reclusive neighbour, warning all options are on the table if it persists with its nuclear and missile development.
North Korea blamed the US and China for "railroading and enforcing" the sanctions resolution at the UN Security Council "after having drafted it in the backroom at their own pleasure."
Earlier this month, Kim's country warned it can now reduce the “Devil’s Den” of America to rubble and is capable of launching intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at the US mainland at any time.
The Pentagon then successfully tested a rocket interceptor which it hopes will bring down any ICBMs from the communist state.
This missile launch in California was a response to the increasingly threatening rhetoric.
But it has served to infuriate Pyongyang where the state run paper Rogong Sinmum has issued a clear warning.
The paper said: "We're prepared to test-fire ICBMs anywhere and anytime on orders from the supreme commander (Kim Jong-un).
"No one can stop the nuclear power state, rocketry master in the East.
"The United States must know our declaration that we can turn the Devil's Den into ashes with nuclear weapons is not an empty threat."