Study on Status of Solar Astronomy in North Korea

We present status of solar astronomy in North Korea through analysis of research papers written by North Korea scientists. For the study, we collected 42 papers published in North Korea and international journals. We have analyzed the papers statistically according to three criteria such as research subject, research field, and research members. The main research subjects are the sunspot (28%), observation system (21%), and space environments (19%). The research fields are distributed with data analysis (50%), numerical method (29%), and instrument development (21%). There have been 25 and 9 researchers in the solar astronomy and space environment, respectively since 1995. North Korea's solar research activities were also investigated in three area: instrument, solar physics, and international research linkage. PAO(Pyongyang Astronomical Observatory) has operated two of sunspot telescope and solar horizontal telescope for spectroscopy and polarimetry, but there is no specific information on solar radio telescopes. North Korea has cooperated in solar research with Europe and China. We expect that the results of this study will be used as useful resource in supporting astronomical cooperation between South and North Korea in the future.