Prosecutors have launched a corruption investigation into the management and sale of minerals from Osoksan Granite Mine.
“The Nampo party committee sent city prosecutors to Osoksan Granite Mine after receiving an anonymous tip about a major discrepancy between what the mine produced and what it actually sold,” a source in South Pyongan province told Daily NK recently.
According to the source, prosecutors have been deployed to the mine and split into two teams to conduct thorough investigations into its operations.
Investigators are examining two years’ worth of excavation and sales records from April 2023 through this past April, reviewing the mine’s books, transportation plans, and on-site work logs to determine what caused the gap between production and sales figures.
The biggest red flag uncovered so far is that while the mine reported higher production than originally planned, the revenue it reported to the city government’s financial and mining management bureaus was significantly lower.
Prosecutors suspect officials may have secretly sold some granite to private businesses or foreign currency-earning joint ventures, and have focused their investigation on this possibility.
Prosecutors also found that while the mine primarily extracts granite for construction, it not only failed to set proper unit prices but also kept unclear sales records.
The mine claimed it made foreign currency sales at $240 per ton, but bank statements showed less than half the expected income. Prosecutors are zeroing in on why this happened, the source said.
“Mine officials’ testimony and anonymous reports confirmed these issues,” the source explained. “Prosecutors are investigating the possibility that this corruption went on for so long because officials in Pyongyang were involved.”
Officials zero in on where money went and who benefited
Meanwhile, prosecutors discovered additional evidence of corruption, including police records showing that vehicles carrying building materials to Pyongyang frequently passed through the mine starting in late 2024.
“Prosecutors don’t think this is just simple accounting mistakes or inflated reporting,” the source said. “Given the complaint and multiple pieces of evidence, they believe it’s clear-cut corruption, and they’re tracking where the money went and who got it.”
City prosecutors believe someone committed the serious crime of misusing state resources for personal gain and have launched an intensive investigation, seeing this case as a golden opportunity to present results at the 12th Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee scheduled for this month.
