North Korean leader Kim Jong-un emphasized the importance of geological exploration in building a socialist economic power amid the global economic slump and international sanctions on the North during a national meeting of geological prospectors over the weekend, a North Korean daily reported on Tuesday.

North Korea has long been eager in prospecting to discover more mineral resources, a key source of badly-needed hard currency for its regime via their exports mainly to China.

"In order to attain the grand goal of building a socialist economic power set forth at the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party (in May), it is necessary to bring about a great turn in geological prospecting," the ruling party's daily Rodong Sinmun quoted Kim as saying in his letter sent to the meeting held at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on Sunday.

Kim underlined the importance of the country realizing the localization of raw materials and fuels via steadfast geological exploration, the paper said.

"It is important to establish the discipline and order of developing the underground natural resources under the state's uniform guidance," Kim said, while stressing that great progress has been made in the past geological prospecting "under the deep care and energetic guidance of President Kim Il-sung and leader Kim Jong-il." (Yonhap)