According to Ri Tok Song, department director of the Ministry of Coal Industry, prospecting corps under the coal mining complexes have conducted tens of thousands of meters of well boring and prospecting tunneling to secure more than ten million tons of coal deposits until now.

In his historic policy speech at the First Session of the 14th DPRK Supreme People's Assembly in April, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un stressed that coal and other mines, which are in charge of the primary front for economic development, should give precedence to prospecting and tunneling and concentrate their efforts on realizing the mechanization of extracting and transport, thus extensively increasing the production of coal, the food of industry, and minerals.

Coal is an important raw material and fuel in developing electric power, metal, chemical and other industries in the country.