The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, more commonly known as North Korea) is a nation with immense non-ferrous and rare-earth mineral reserves.¹ Among these is magnesite, which has been mined in commercially viable quantities since the Japanese colonial period. While the estimates of North Korean magnesite reserves has fluctuated dramatically over the past 15 years, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that North Korea has 2.3 billion metric tons of magnesite reserves and that its total 2018 mine production of magnesite was 270,000 metric tons.² While this is a decline from the 380,000 metric ton estimate for 2017, due to international sanctions imposed during 2017, it remains both an important export and domestic commodity for North Korea.³ Among the nations that have purchased magnesite from North Korea during the past 10 years, China is the largest customer by a large margin. Foreign analysts, especially in South Korea, believe that China’s large long-term purchases of North Korean rare-earth and non-ferrous minerals, including magnesite, are a component of a strategy to lock out competitors and influence world market pricing.⁴