Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un’s latest summit in Pyongyang broadcast their commitment to bolstering Russia-North Korea ties, but while global attention has focused on their arms trade over the war in Ukraine, Moscow also has its eye on another area for cooperation — the DPRK’s allegedly vast reserves of precious rare-earth metals.

Rare earths are critical components for everything from computers and smartphones to hybrid cars and advanced weapons, and estimates over the years have placed the size of North Korea’s untapped rare-earth resources in the tens of millions of tons.

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