https://www.ics.uci.edu/~wmt/courses/ICS5_W13/NorthKorea.html
North Korea Environmental problems
Zachary Gottlieb
NORTH KOREA
North Korea has had several significant environmental issues over the years. North Korea is ruled under a dictator regime that tends to isolate itself from the rest of the world. This means that what goes on in North Korea isn't highly publicized everyday because they're a very secretive country. There are well known environment problems though, even though the country seems to keep it's daily routines secretive. As listed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the current environment issues are Òwater pollution; inadequate supplies of portable water; waterborne disease; deforestation; soil erosion and degradationÓ (The World Factbook).
Professor Jinsuk Byan at the Sookmyung Women's University in South Korea stated the following about North Korea's environment
ÒIt is estimated currently North Korea has environmental problems while its economy does not provide any hope of assigning substantial amounts of resources for the cleanup of pollution and contamination, not to speak of any preventive measuresÓ (Byun 2).
In regards to North Korea's land degradation problem, this is caused by the use of to many chemicals, lack of fertilizer and lack of supplies that maintain land (Kirby). Ò
Major crop yields fell by almost two thirds during the 1990s due to land degradation caused by loss of forest droughts, floods and tidal waves, acidification due to over-use of chemicals, as well as shortages of fertilizer, farm machinery and oilÓ (Kirby).
This is damaging to the animals of North Korea, in fact North Korea contains some very important endangered species that are surrounded by these horrible conditions (ibid). An article in the ÒNew ScientistÓ written by Keith Bowers took an economic approach to the explanation of North Korea's forest (Bowers).
Bowers explained that the downfall of communism in Russia and China's capitalism venture had a domino effect on North Korea which in turn also damaged their environment (ibid).
ÒIn the 1990s, disaster struck. The fall of communism in Russia and China's dash for capitalism led to a downward economic spiral. Widespread food and fuel shortages forced people to turn to the forests for their basic needs. At the same time devastating storms and floods ravaged much of the country, wiping out harvests and infrastructureÓ (ibid). This explains the deforestation issue and why the forests are so damaged in North Korea. North Korea is currently in a state of such environmental deprivation that the secretive nation has gone outside of its comfort zone to seek assistance with their environment (ibid).
Keith Bowers was invited to North Korea in order to examine the environmental crisis as supported by NGO's in Beijing, China and Pyongyang, North Korea (Bowers).
Bowers observed the following about North Korea's environment conditions, ÒErosion, sedimentation and habitat loss are pervasive, and many watersheds are ecologically lifelessÓ (Bowers).
North Korea's issue is that their environment is so heavily damaged that it will take a vast amount of work to reconstruct it into a functional environment again (Stone). A central issue with fully helping North Korea with their environment problem is the amount of political issues they have with various nations, especially the United States (ibid).
ÒOn a rare foray into North Korea's countryside, Palmer, director of the University of Maryland's National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center in Annapolis, saw a landscape of wasted soil and rivers choked with silt from erosionÓ (Stone).
Mercy Corps International Director of Northeast Asia, Kenneth Quionones, stated that natural disasters can only take the blame for an extent of the environmental problems that lead to environmental issues such as deforestation in North Korea (Jost).
ÒBasically, we're talking about overemphasis on increased production and insensitivity to the needs of Mother Nature: depletion of the soil, land erosion, deforestationÓ (Jost). North Korea's over-usage of their natural resources and negligence to take care of their natural resources has landed them in a pit of problems that are hard to fix over night (Jost).
In regards to soil erosion, The Atlantic Wire reported that overuse of land procedures have destroyed soil matter and continues to destroy it (Hudson). Not only has this been an issue currently, but the 1990's as aforementioned set forward its own problems. Natural disasters such as floods and unfortunate occurrences such as droughts placed a heavy burden on North Korean citizens and their crops (ibid).
ÒAccording to Science magazine, the country took another hit in the 1990s when droughts and floods destroyed crops and left thousands dead in a major famineÓ (ibid). In terms of statistics as how to bad the deforestation was after this event in the 90's, the forest shrunk to 7.6 million hectares from a staggering 8.2 million hectares (ibid).
North Korea faced and continues to face another severe issue amongst its citizens, this being waterborne diseases. Waterborne diseases are very well known to cause severe illness. Julia Macdonald commented in Karl DeRouen Jr., Professor at the University of Alabama and Paul Bellamy research analyst at the Parliamentary Library, New Zealand Parliament, Encyclopedia on waterborne diseases in North Korea and how they have been a major problem (Macdonald 556). She stated that this was due to Òrapid industrialization in the 1990s and poor environmental controlsÓ (ibid). This has everything to do with environmental issues in North Korea because waterborne diseases come from contaminated water supply which ultimately boils down to an unsafe water supply caused by environmental issues.
Solutions are being considered and executed upon as a way of improving the terrible environmental conditions in North Korea. When problems arise it is only natural that solutions be considered, especially when significant damage is done. In order to tackle the issue of the degraded forest, ÒAs a step toward healing its ecosystems, DPRK passed a law in 2009 to protect specific areas. Since then it has set aside more than 2 million hectares as forest reservesÓ (Stone). The Department of Geography and Environment Engineering asserted that North Korea will continue to handle their environment issues along with their other whopping issues that continuously pile on because of their independence from the rest of the world in their own way (Malinowski 44).
ÒHowever, human interaction with the natural environment has arguably had the most profound impact, especially in North Korea. Deforestation and associated environment problems will likely continue to plague the country as it wrestles with conservation issues, while trying to maintain its self-reliance and meeting the needs of its peopleÓ (ibid).
Furthermore, North Korea has various environment issues that they must solve, one resolution appearing to be not isolating itself from the rest of the world. The political isolation that they surround their country with disables full support.
North Korea is an independent nation, they do not have an open nation and their business is kept private. In 2012 Dr. Palmer of the University of Maryland was invited to take a trip to North Korea to examine environment conditions and she stated that she would be interested in working with North Korean scientists but they have no interest in visiting the United States in order to have a conference (Foster). This is a classic example of North Korea not wanting to cooperate with one of the strongest nations in the world in regards to their environment issues.
Their unwillingness to cooperate leaves them in a tricky situation that only holds them back from true restoration of their once bountiful natural resources. North Korea must work its political issues out before they can truly advance in restoring their environment, or they must learn how to properly take care of their environment without overusing what they don't have.
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List of my references...
1 http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a2h&AN=83579148&site=ehost-live
2 http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/q- and-a-north-koreas-choked-environment/
3 http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/04/environment-so-bad-north-korea-theyll-even-let-americans-help/50653/
The Environment Is So Bad in North Korea, They'll Even Let Americans Help - The Atlantic
4 http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2000051900
5 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3598966.stm
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