• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.313-318
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• 2023

This study is about the actual condition of forest devastation in North Korea and the cooperative plan between South and North Korea for the restoration. In other words, it aims to derive policy implications for 'forest restoration' from the phenomenon of severe forest devastation in North Korea. It is because forest devastation in North Korea causes floods, droughts, and soil losses on the Korean Peninsula, adding to food shortages, and assuming that the future unification of the two Koreas, the cost of forest restoration in North Korea will increase environmentally and economically. Therefore, this study derives policy implications by examining the causes and conditions of forest devastation in North Korea and comparing the differences and commonalities of forest policies in South and North Korea through analysis of forest policy strategies in North Korea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.6_3
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• pp.1233-1242
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• 2017

In this study, we tried to analyze deforestation due to forest fire by using KOMPSAT satellite imagery. For deforestation analysis, unsupervised change detection algorithm is applied to multitemporal images. Through ITPCA (ITerative Principal Component Analysis) of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) generated from multitemporal satellite images before and after forest fire, changed areas due to deforestation are extracted. In addition, a post-processing method using SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission) data is involved in order to minimize the error of change detection. As a result of the experiment using KOMPSAT-2 and 3 images, it was confirmed that changed areas due to deforestation can be efficiently extracted.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2016

As the deforestation in North Korea gets severed, the interest for REDD+ is also increasing. This study analyzed historical land cover changes of the study area which is 10,000 ha in Hwanghaebukdo of North Korea for assessing change in landcover and carbon storage. The result showed that the forest area had decreased from 7,035 ha to 4,293 ha which is approximately 39% of total forest area between 1989 and 2013. The deforestation caused that forest carbon storage had decreased approximately $284,399tCO_2$. Set the baseline and analysed the potential reduction amount of carbon emission, it was estimated that REDD+ project could store approximately $364,704tCO_2$ for next 30 years. This study still has limitations such as lacking in direct field survey and the data of stand volume of each tree species which was replaced with the data of stand volume in South Korea. But, study can be applied for future REDD+ projects in North Korea.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.5_1
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• pp.649-663
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• 2019

The 2018 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report announced that deforestation in North Korea is the most extreme situation and in terms of climate change, this deforestation is a global scale issue. To respond deforestation, various study and projects are conducted based on remote sensing, but access to public data in North Korea is limited, and objectivity is difficult to be guaranteed. In this study, the forest detection based on density estimation in statistic using Landsat imagery was conducted in Gangwon province which is the only administrative district divided into South and North. The forest spatial data of South Korea was used as data for the labeling of forest and Non-forest in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and a threshold (0.6658) for forest detection was set by Gaussian Probability Density Function (PDF) estimation by category. The results show that the forest area decreased until the 2000s in both Korea, but the area increased in 2010s. It is also confirmed that the reduction of forest area on the local scale is the same as the policy direction of urbanization and industrialization at that time. The Kappa value for validation was strong agreement (0.8) and moderate agreement (0.6), respectively. The detection based on the Gaussian PDF estimation is considered a method for complementing the statistical limitations of the existing detection method using satellite imagery. This study can be used as basic data for deforestation in North Korea and Based on the detection results, it is necessary to protect and restore forest resources.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.633-638
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• 2018

We are constantly hearing about the seriousness of food shortages in North Korea through various media reports. Recently, the severity of the problem has increased, and international organizations and relief organizations have become increasingly concerned. Due to the shortage of food and firewood, residents illegally cut trees in the mountains and, as a result, North Korea has become the third fastest-growing area of forest degradation in Asia. However, since North Korea cannot directly measure the extent of forest degradation, remote sensing techniques using satellite imagery have to be applied. The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics of forest change in North Korea, in order to understand the severity of the forest degradation problem. For this purpose, Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI TIRS satellite images were acquired and classified. As a result, it was found that the forests have turned into wilderness in the Nampo City and Pyongyang municipalities, while the wasteland has changed into forests in the north of Yanggangdo. In addition, the total forested area of the whole region decreased by $4,166.22km^2$, the residential area decreased by $2,017.03km^2$, and the amount of agricultural land increased by $6,625.74km^2$, which is similar to the amount of forested area lost, although the difference in the overall area of the forests between 2017 and 2006 was small.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.171-181
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• 2014

This study was performed to prevent deforestation and forest degradation and vitalize REDD+ program through suitable site analysis at the 16 districts of South Korea. For this, we worked out profit potential, opportunity cost, carbon credits through making it use of conception of the Forest Carbon Index. As a results, Gyeonggi-do, Incheon Metropolitan City, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Daegu Metropolitan City, Gwangwon-do included in the top 5 among the 16 districts of South Korea. In case of Gyeonggi-do as best suitable site, reduction of carbon emission was best high due to reduction area of deforestation. And profit potential was also high in accordance with practice of REDD+ program. Furthermore, we proposed four plans to activate REDD+ program in South Korea on the basis of the results.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.113-126
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• 2021

This study was conducted to analyze the forest status and deforestation area changes of the DMZ region in North Korea based on satellite images. Using growing and non-growing season's RapidEye satellite images, land cover of the North Korean DMZ was classified into stocking land(conifer, deciduous, mixed), deforested land(unstocked mountain, cultivated mountain, bare mountain), and non-forest areas. Deforestation rates in the Yeonan-baecheon, Beopdong-Pyeonggang, Heoyang-Geumgang and Tongcheon-Goseong district were calculated as 14.24%, 16.75%, 5.98%, and 16.63% respectively. Forest fire and land use change of forest were considered as the main causes of deforestation of DMZ. Changes in deforestation area were analyzed through Google Earth images. As a results, it was shown that the area of deforestation was on a decreasing trend. This study can be used as basic data for establishing inter-Korean border region's forest cooperation strategies by providing forest spatial information on the North Korea's DMZ.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.123-148
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• 2012

Deforestation and forest degradation in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) accelerated from the mid 1980s through the economic crisis in 1990s and is still happening. DPRK has conducted afforestation and reforestation activities against this trend. However there are not many official documents on achievement of forest rehabilitation in DPRK. "Rodong Shinmun," as an official newspaper published by North Korean Workers Party, represents governmental policies and is one of a few accessible information on DPRK which is available in Republic of Korea (ROK). This paper aims to investigate the national forest policies of the DPRK represented in Rodong Shinmun. Total of 499 articles using the word 'Sanlim (forest)' and 'Rimsan (forest product)' in the title of articles were selected for content analysis. The national forest plans and forest policy instruments contained in the selected articles were analyzed. The subjects of represented forest policies were classified into four groups; forestation, forest management, land management and forest protection or conservation. The focus of forest policy was changed from economic utilization of forest resources such as timber production in the 1990s to forest protection in the 2000s. Rodong Shinmun reported more frequently about regulatory instruments and informational instruments than the economic instruments. Official commendation and awards were the main incentives given to the people who contributed to forestry achievements. In particular, forest policies were emphasized by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and afforestation and forest protection were described as patriotic activities in the Rodong Shinmun. In conclusion, this research revealed that Rodong Shinmun plays a role as a means for introducing, propagating and instigating forest policies in the society of the DPRK. The findings help to understand the forest policies of the DPRK which could be useful when designing development aids for DPRK.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.484-497
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• 2012

In recent, the primary concern of the forest policy paradigm, which has been mostly focusing on reducing emissions by the effort of afforestation and reforestation, is moving to the REDD activities that are operated by deforestation and forest degradation. In response, the phased studies is going well to visualize performance outcomes of REDD activities. This study brings up the optimum baseline approach for operating the national REDD program by simulating six different baseline approaches broadly used throughout the worldwide, and classified forestry condition for each province in Korea. From this study, we could aware that the carbon credit of HFLD has a low acquisition, but LFMD and LFHD has a high acquisition. Therefore, there are not many reasons for performing REDD activities due to the lack of economical benefits in compared to the devleopment of producing district in HFLD. All kinds of forestry condition, satisfactory baseline approach are needed to enhance the participation and the actuality about REDD program. When evaluating the participation and actuality, the rational decision should be considered as the most appropriate Corridor Approach. This study suggests that the modified Corridor Approach is required for overcoming the weak points, so that we developed the New Corridor Approach which could be easily adopted to Korea environment.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.204-214
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• 2023

This study aimed to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the potential impact of deforestation and forest restoration on carbon storage in North Korea until 2050, employing rigorous analyses of trends of land use change in the past periods and projecting future land use change scenarios. We utilized the CA-Markov model, which can reflect spatial trends in land use changes, and verified the impact of forest restoration strategies on carbon storage by creating land use change scenarios (reforestation and non-reforestation). We employed two distinct periods of land use maps (2000 to 2010 and 2010 to 2020). To verify the overall terrestrial carbon storage in North Korea, our evaluation included estimations of carbon storage for various elements such as above-ground, below-ground, soil, and debris (including litters) for settlement, forest, cultivated, grass, and bare areas. Our results demonstrated that effective forest restoration strategies in North Korea have the potential to increase carbon storage by 4.4% by the year 2050, relative to the carbon storage observed in 2020. In contrast, if deforestation continues without forest restoration efforts, we predict a concerning decrease in carbon storage by 11.5% by the year 2050, compared to the levels in 2020. Our findings underscore the significance of prioritizing and continuing forest restoration efforts to effectively increase carbon storage in North Korea. Furthermore, the implications presented in this study are expected to be used in the formulation and implementation of long-term forest restoration strategies in North Korea, while fostering international cooperation towards this common environmental goal.