• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.15-19
• /
• 2006

In this study, the meteorology terms in the geography text books of North Korea which includes all of the meteorology educational contents in secondary school curriculum are compared with those in the earth science text books in South Korea. Forty science terms which are the same meaning but composed of different words are picked up to investigate the degree for 89 high school students in Chonnam province to perceive the meanings correctly. High school students' perceptions is on the average 30% higher in terminology of South Korea textbooks than in those of North Korea. But, students' perceptions on 9 North Korean terms is rather higher compared to South Korean terms. Twenty six (83.9%) terms which are difficult for high school students to perceive correct meanings are those lately composed of North Korean native words. Most of meteorology terms in South Korean textbooks are derived from the Chinese characters or imported from foreign language terms are easier for high school students to perceive correct meanings than those of North Korean terms derived from North Korean native language.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.122-142
• /
• 2016

This paper examines the implications of North Korea's Special Economic Zone (SEZ) strategy since the early 1990s in terms of the shifts in both North Korea's economic system and geopolitical order on the Korean peninsula. Specifically, it analyzes the shifts in North Korea's SEZ policy in three different aspects-North Korea's unique territorial logic, stress on decentralization, and comparison with Chinese reform and opening-up. Based upon this analysis, this paper criticizes a linear approach to understand North Korea's economic transformation from isolation to opening-up, and explores the dynamics of North Korea SEZ strategy in various dimensions. It contends that North Korea's SEZ strategy is neither an inevitable choice from economic difficulty nor an adoption of Chinese model of reform and opening up. Rather this paper focuses on the geopolitical logic and local development imperatives underlying SEZ strategy.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.1-23
• /
• 2003

The goal of this paper is to explore and compare the situations of North Korean and Chinese labor forces in the Russian Far East (RFE). First of all, the past and present pictures of North Korean and Chinese labor forces were reviewed, and then local Russinans' views about those foreign workers were analyzed in terms of political, economic, socio-psychological and public order aspects. As a result, it turned out that both North Korean and Chinese workers were regarded as useful to the RFE from economic viewpoint, but not as beneficial to local Russians in terms of maintenance of public order. According to the political and socio-psychological views of local Russians, North Korean labor forces were much more preferable to their Chinese counterparts. This paper implies that participation of South Korea in the development of RFE via North Korea workers is significant in that local Russians are very afraid of flooding Chinese workers there.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.40 no.6 s.111
• /
• pp.770-788
• /
• 2005

In this article, major research trends are examined mainly from articles published in Journal of the Korean Geography, academic society journals of sub-fields in geography and Ph.D. dissertations in geography of universities in Korea. Based on the research trends up to current point, issues and research directions in order to raise the status of Korean Geography in the twenty first century are prospected. Sixty years of Korean Geography can be divided into 4 periods such as before 1970s, during the 1980s, during the 1990s, and the period after the 2001. Each period of time revealed distinct aspects of development both quantitatively and qualitatively. For the last 60 years, the study of Korean Geography has gone through enormous changes in the number of articles with dynamics and variety in contents and methodology, breathing with the changes of the Korean society. Experiencing urbanization and industrialization along with rapid economical growth, the study of Korean Geography has progressed by analyzing the issues and problems of national space and conducting various researches from the case studies for problem-solving to the theoretical and policy oriented studies. The key-words such as 'knowledge based information society', 'aged society', and 'the era of globalization' will be realized in the twenty flit century. And environment-friendly policies for sustainable development will be more stressed in a globalized world. In order to provide research methods and alternatives suitable for newly transformed global society and for utilizing the essence of Geography in the future, the studies on Korean Geography should actively focus on integrative studies between physical and human geography, on interdisciplinary studies, on regional studies related to foreign countries and North Korea, and on the establishment of Korean geographical theory and model.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.325-353
• /
• 2017

This article aims to investigate the geographical distribution and the cultural, historical, and symbolic meanings of the place names in the area of Bukhansanseong (Fortress), and to basically suggest the several features which have happened throughout the process of toponymic changes. In order to realize the purpose of the article, I collected the chronological toponymic data, particularly focusing on the Bukhanji (Record of Bukhansanseong, 1745) in which the most existing place names related to Bukhansanseong are recorded. In the meantime, I proposed the character of distributions and types of the physical, human place names according to the rear-part of toponymic morpheme, i.e. the generic name. Moreover, selecting the main place names such as 'Bukhansan', etc., I analyzed some features on the toponymic meanings and changes in accordance with the fore-part of toponymic morpheme, the specific name. Consequently, I identified the facts that the name of 'Bukhansan' in the era of the Three Kingdoms, 'Samgaksan' in the Goryeo Dynasty, and again 'Bukhansan' or 'Buksan' in the Joseon Dynasty era had been primarily called. And then the place name, 'Bukhansan' has been officially named until now since constructing the Bukhansanseong Fortress in 1711. Meanwhile, the physical place names related to mountainous and fluvial topography, the place names of artificial facilities such as a mountain fortress on this geographical environment, and especially Buddhistic place names which was named and identified by Buddhist monk, Seongneung who wrote the Bukhanji, representing the Buddhistic identity and ideology, form a large majority of the place names within Bukhansanseong.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.264-274
• /
• 2014

The main purpose of the current research is to analyze DPR Korean carbon emissions due to forest loss and to identify potential project sites for REDD implementation. REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) is a global environmental policy that is geared towards lowering carbon emissions in developing and least developed countries through saving forests that are vulnerable to future deforestation. DPR Korea is known for its underdevelopment as well as its serious environmental degradation, but limited research exists regarding these issues. The research employs remotely sensed global data and forest carbon stock information from the existing literature to quantify carbon emissions in DPR Korea. It turns out that the country may have had emitted about 82.6 to 149.3 $MtCO_2e$ due to forest loss between 2005 and 2009. A few administrative districts are delineated as prospective REDD sites, of which the outcomes of Local Moran's I represent high rates of deforestation. In brief, it appears there is a great possibility to lower carbon emissions in DPR Korea via REDD implementation.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.518-533
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is addressing the process of developing industrial complex in North Korea, especially in Gaeseong. The Gaeseong Industrial Complex(GIC) is the first project which is completed in North Korea by South Korean company. LH, the main developer of the project successfully made the various procedures, master planning, land acquiring, developing, attracting investment, managing SOC, for making the industrial complex competitive using its own know-how and experiences in South Korea. The New development experience of LH in Gaeseong Industrial Complex case would indicate various implications to us for making another developing project in North Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.189-205
• /
• 2000

북한강 지류 홍천강은 중류구간과 하류구간의 하천 형태가 대조적이다. 홍천강의 중류는 단층선을 따라 직선상으로 남서류하고, 하류는 감입곡류 구간으로 서류하여 북한강에 합류한다. 유역분지의 기반암은 중류구간의 서쪽과 하류구간은 편마암, 중류구간의 동쪽은 화강암이며, 상류구간은 변성암과 화강암이 혼재한다. 하안단구는 중류구간 유로의 양안에서 넓게 분포하며, 하류구간에서는 감입곡류의 활주사면에 좁게 나타난다. 이러한 특징은 지질구조선의 존재, 중류와 하류의 지질 특성과 이에 따른 유로 발달의 차이에 기인한다. 화계분지는 중류구간의 가장 하류쪽에 위치하는데, 분지 내에는 고도를 달리하는 여러 단의 하안단구가 분포한다. 즉, 화계분지에서는 과거 여러 번에 걸친 유로변경과 이로 인해 곡류절단이 이루어졌다. 이는 변성암으로 이루어진 홍천강 하류의 좁고 깊은 하곡이 국지적인 침식기준면으로 작용하여 중류에서 하류로의 곡류대 이동이 방해받았기 때문이다. 하안단구의 형성시기는 기존의 연구결과와 비교할 때, 저위 I면과 저위II면이 각각 Early Wurm 빙기와 Late Wurm에 대비되는 marine oxygen isotope stage 4와 2 시기에, 중위면은 Late Riss에 해당하는 marine oxygen isotope stage 6에 형성된 것으로 추정된다.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.287-306
• /
• 2017

Since the 1990s, political geographers have focused on the study of the process of border construction. They have shifted from the old morphological and functional approaches to boundary that have focused on the types and functions of boundaries. Recent scholarship on border studies understand boundaries and the border regions as entities with overlapping and competing relationships not as manifestation of territoriality. There has been the emphasis on the multidimensional actors and the historical and cultural legacies inherent in the border region as well. Based on these recent discussions, this study examines how the border region has been constructed by various actors and strategies in Dandong China, the border city between North Korea and China. Several sanctions including UN Security Council have been resolved and implemented in accordance with North Korea's nuclear and missile development, which is a relevant example to examine the "border as relationships" in which strategies of various actors are competing. In addition, this paper has a significance as a case study on the construction process of border and the characteristics of its materiality, which is a way to overcome the limitation of discourse-oriented critical geopolitical research.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.329-352
• /
• 2017

Since the late 2000s Korean foreign direct investors in North Korea and China border regions have gone through the closure of outward processing trade(OPT) networks and changes in their location due to UN security council resolution and Korean independent sanctions against North Korea's nuclear and missile tests. However, the introduction of new Chinese OPT policy has led to the invigoration of domestic market-based OPT networks towards North Korea. The main aim of this paper is to identify the exceptional characteristics of Dandong in Liaoning province, a North Korea and China border region by analyzing OPT networks towards North Korea. Fundamentally the establishment of OPT networks towards North Korea is likely to be based on the utilization of a plenty of low wages in North Korea. The main reasons for this are fallen into two perspectives: geo-economics and geo-politics. The first perspective is geo-economics centering on the consolidation of economic exchange between North Korea and China, and North Korean economic development. For example, the introduction of Chinese OPT in border region has enabled Chinese local firms based on domestic market to access a plenty of low wage in North Korea in formal and institutional contexts. The second is geo-politics for the stability of North Korean regime based on the means of geo-economics. As the invigoration of domestic market-based OPT networks might make North Korea possible promoting foreign money earning, it enable North Korea to be sustainable as a buffering region between capitalist and socialist regime for China. It shows Chinese geo-strategic attempts to deal with the economic and regime stability of North Korean as a buffering state. In other words, OPT networks in North Korea should be concerned with the discourse practice of geo-economics and geo-politics which might lead to various and contingent spatial economies in border region. As a consequence, North Korea and China border regions could defined as a space in which is applicable to exceptional institutions and policies, and an exploitative space in which create surplus and rents by utilizing a plenty of low wages in North Korea through OPT networks.