• The Journal of the Korean Institute of Forest Recreation
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.11-22
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• 2018

This study analyzes the economic feasibility on the transition of production structure to increase income for a local forest village in Laos PDR. The study area was the Nongboua village in Sangthong district where the primary product is rice from rice paddy. Possible strategies were considered to increase the villagers' revenue, and Noni (Morinda citrifolia) was production in the short-term. We assumed that the project period was for 20 years for the analysis, and a total of 1,100 Noni tree was planted in 1 ha by $3m{\times}3m$ spacing. This study classified basic scenario one, scenario two, scenario three by the survival rate and purchase pirce of Noni. Generally Noni grows well. However, the seedlings' average survival rate (= production volume) was set up conservatively in this study to consider potential risks such as no production experience of Noni and tree disease. The scenario one assumed that the survival rate of Noni seedlings was 50% for 0-1 years, 60% for 0-2 years, and 70% for 3-20 years; the scenario two, 10% less, i.e., 40%, 50%, and 60%; and the scenario three, 10% less, i.e., 40%, 50%, 60% and purchase price 10% less, i.e., $0.29 to $0.26, respectively. Our analysis showed that all 3 scenarios resulted in economically-feasible IRR (internal rate of return) of 24.81%, 19.02%, and 16.30% of with a discounting rate of 10%. The B/C (benefit/cost) ratio for a unit area (1ha) was also analyzed for the three scenarios with a discounting rate of 10%, resutling in the B/C ratio of 1.71, 1.47, and 1.31. The study results showed that the Nongboua village would have a good opportunity to improve its low-income structure through planting and managing alternative crops such as Noni. Also the results can be used as useful decision-making information at a preliminary analysis level for planning other government and public investment projects for the Nonboua village.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.95-129
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• 2017

This study surveys and reviews political change, economic performance, and regional cooperation that were carried out in 2016 by Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN. This paper reports that what has followed the inauguration of new governments in Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Laos fails to live up to the expectation and optimism that arose in the aftermath of elections and party congresses that took place in the first half of the year. In other countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia, where authoritarian regimes are faced with strong oppositions, the prospects for democratic change worsened to a substantial degree, as schisms and internal strives complicated the opposition camp as a result of instigation and intervention by the authoritarian leaders and their followers. In stable political systems, both democratic and authoritarian, no significant changes that may entail serious political implications were noticed. In 2016, the national economy of almost each and every country continued its slow but steady recovery that had started in 2014 and grew by 5% on the average. For 2017 onward, however, the earlier optimism that it would grow at least as fast dimmed down as uncertainty about the world economy looms larger due to the unexpected win by Donald Trump as U.S. president and the expected 'hard landing' of the Chinese economy around 2018. ASEAN declared the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) only one day before the New Year, but its track record looked already bad and unpromising by the end of 2016. ASEAN leaders were tied up by their domestic politics and affairs too tightly to take time off to work seriously to observe the schedule as laid out in the AEC Blueprint 2025. Korea's relationship with Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN was "as good as it gets" in 2016 as ever but could become subject to tough review in the near future, if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is found out to have been implicated in the ongoing Choi Sun Sil scandal and if the opposition wins the next presidential election to be held by this year.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2020

The ASF, which originated in Africa and threatens the world, landed in Asia in 2018 in China, and became a stern threat to the security of the Korean Peninsula when North Korea officially reported the ASF to the OIE in May 2019. In 1921, Montgomery, a British veterinary pathologist, made headlines by naming the African swine fever "African Swine Fever," or ASF, a disease caused by a high fatality virus that existed in East Africa. The ASF, which was a pandemic of endemic diseases in Africa, landed in Portgal around 1957 and swept through farms in Lisbon, Portugal. The ASF continued to settle in Spain and Portugal, causing 40 years of damage until the end of the 1990s, and is now in progress after landing on the Italian island of Sardinia in 1978. The virus, which landed in Portiport of Georgia on the Black Sea coast of the Black Sea in 2007, spread to Russia and caused massive damage to China in 2018, then rapidly spread to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar in May 2019 and spread across the country, causing massive damage to the pork industry and is now in progress. Just three months after confirming the outbreak in North Korea, the outbreak at farms in Paju and Yeoncheon was confirmed on Sept. 16, 2019, leaving South Korea with the stigma of ASF-causing countries, and although the ASF's nationwide expansion has been blocked, it is currently underway in wild boars. If the ongoing ASF in the two Koreas becomes indigenous, it would be a major disaster not only for the pork industry but also for the Korean Peninsula economy. Under the current circumstances, it is impossible to focus only on veterinary areas limited to South Korea, ruling out risk factors from the ASF outbreak. Currently, it is difficult to prevent damage to the pork industry due to the ASF outbreak due to the poor water defense reality in North Korea, and as it is adjacent to China, which has a high risk of developing various epidemic diseases, there is a need for the two Koreas to jointly conduct quarantine and quarantine on the border areas. First of all, I think rapid exchange of information and education on ASF and other diseases is necessary before establishing a joint defense system on the Korean Peninsula. It is important to conduct thorough quarantine and disinfection of ASF-generated areas in North Korea, and areas bordering China and Russia, and jointly conduct thorough quarantine and control of livestock and livestock products in circulation. Cooperation by the South and North Korean water defense industries to prevent the protracted ASF on the Korean Peninsula by all means and methods is essential.