stratos stratos:
I'm thinking this might be an attempt to force people to give the the Tech for *safe* nuclear power. Not sure if they even need any type of nuclear power at this stage of their devlopement. They are not a what I would consider industeraly strong.
That's kind of the same argument for not having Nuclear Power in Africa. Trouble is, you can't run heavy industry like steel foundries on solar power, and unless there is a good potential power supply these industries won't take off. You need hydro, gas or nuclear. North Korea doesn't have much natural gas, and their terrain I believe doesn't have much potential for hydro dams, so that limits their growth. That, and the nutbar at the helm.
Nuclear power can be Uranium based, but Thorium would be better. NK chose this design, because it's also capable of processing Uranium into Plutonium and weapons grade Plutonium. Thorium can't be used for weapons in any form.