• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.272-287
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• 2019

The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was established in 1953 by the Korean War Armistice Agreement. It extends from the estuary of the Imjin River, in the west, to the coast of the East Sea. It is 4 km in width and 148 km in length. However, the ecosystems of the civilian control zone (CCZ) located between the southern border of the DMZ and the civilian control line (CCL) and the CCZ in the estuary of the Han River and the Yellow Sea are similar to those in the DMZ, and, therefore, the ecosystems of the DMZ and the CCZ are collectively known as the "ecosystems of the DMZ and its vicinities." The flora in the DMZ and its vicinities is composed of 1,864 species, which accounts for about 42% of all the vascular plant species on the Korean Peninsula and its affiliated islands. Conducting a detailed survey on the vegetation, flora, and fauna in the DMZ is almost impossible due to the presence of landmines and limitations on the time allowed to be spent in the DMZ. However, to assess the environmental impact of the Munsan-Gaesong railroad reconstruction project, it was possible to undertake a limited vegetation survey within the DMZ in 2001. The vegetation in Jangdan-myeon, in Paju City within the DMZ, was very simple. It was mostly secondary forests dominated by oaks such as Quercus mongolica, Q. acutissima, and Q. variabilis. The other half of the DMZ in Jangdan-myeon was occupied by grassland composed of tall grasses such as Miscanthus sinensis, M. sacchariflorus, and Phragmites japonica. Contrary to the expectation that the DMZ may be covered with pristine mature forests due to more than 60 years of no human interference, the vegetation in the DMZ was composed of simple secondary forests and grasslands formed on former rice paddies and agricultural fields. At present, the only legal protection system planned for the DMZ is the Natural Environment Conservation Act, which ensures that the DMZ would be managed as a nature reserve for only two years following Korean reunification. Therefore, firstly, the DMZ should be designated as a site of domestic legally protected areas such as nature reserve (natural monument), scenic site, national park, etc. In addition, we need to try to designate the DMZ as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve or as a World Heritage site, or as a Ramsar international wetland for international cooperation. For nomination as a world heritage site, we can emphasize the ecological and landscape value of the wetlands converted from the former rice paddies and the secondary forests maintained by frequent fires initiated by military activities. If the two Koreas unexpectedly reunite without any measures in place for the protection of nature in the DMZ, the conditions prior to the Korean War, such as rice paddies and villages, will return. In order to maintain the current condition of the ecosystems in the DMZ, we have to discuss and prepare for measures including the retention of mines and barbed-wire fences, the construction of roads and railroads in the form of tunnels or bridges, and the maintenance of the current fire regime in the DMZ.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.154-169
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• 2021

The establishment of the Bronze Age is one of the most important achievements suggested by Korean archaeology shortly after liberation. There is no doubt that Moo-Byung Yoon is the representative figure, who refuted the ambiguous Eneolithic age (金石倂用期) created by Japanese scholars and settled the concept of the Bronze Age. In this article, the author takes a new look at Yoon's institutional role in studying the Bronze Age in Korea. Until now, Yoon's representative achievement has been his typology of the Slender dagger of the Korean Peninsula. However, it is not less important that Yoon also established the Bronze Age concept with the excavation of a dolmen and a Bronze Age subterranean dwelling in Oksok-ni, Paju during the 1960s. Of course, it was not a personal assignment for Yoon. He was aided by Prof. Kim Won-Yong's work, who had introduced newly excavated materials from North Korea and China; these materials gave some insight for establishing the Bronze Age concepts in the 1960 and 1970s. Kim's suggestion about the possibility of a Korean Bronze Age led to Yoon's refined typological study on Korea's bronze wares. However, Yoon's excessive schematic classification of artifacts and reliance on the Japanese chronology became an obstacle for making the Korean Bronze Age isolated from East Asia. As a result, it is regrettable that his research led to the "cultural lag" phenomenon of Bronze Age research. Meanwhile, Japanese archaeology, which had influenced Yoon, also faced a major change. In 2003, the Japanese archaeological community revised the Yayoi culture's beginning around the 1,000 BC. This means a shift in the perception that we should understand Japan's Bronze Age in the context of the East Asian continent. Of course, it is not appropriate to reevaluate or denigrate Yoon's research from the current view. Rather, it is necessary to recognize the limitations of Yoon's time and present a new path to research by combining the archaeological tradition of refining research on the relics he maintained with a new chronological view and a macro view of East Asian archaeology. This is why we should take a new glimpse into Yoon's research.

• 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.

• Journal of Ginseng Culture
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• v.5
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• pp.32-51
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• 2023

Because red ginseng was exported in large quantities to the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century, a large-scale ginseng cultivation complex was established in Kaesong. Sibyunje (時邊制), a privately led loan system unique to merchants in Kaesong, made it possible for them to raise the enormous capital required for ginseng cultivation. The imperial family of the Korean Empire promulgated the Posamgyuchik (包蔘規則) in 1895, and this signaled the start of the red ginseng monopoly system. In 1899, when the invasion of ginseng farms by the Japanese became severe, the imperial soldiers were sent to guard the ginseng farms to prevent the theft of ginseng by the Japanese. Furthermore, the stateled compensation mission, Baesanggeum Seongyojedo (賠償金 先交制度), provided 50%-90% of the payment for raw ginseng, which was paid in advance of harvest. In 1895, rising seed prices prompted some merchants to import and sell poor quality seeds from China and Japan. The red ginseng trade order was therefore promulgated in 1920 to prohibit the import of foreign seeds without the government's permission. In 1906-1910, namely, the early period of Japanese colonial rule, ginseng cultivation was halted, and the volume of fresh ginseng stocked as a raw material for red ginseng in 1910 was only 2,771 geun (斤). However, it increased significantly to 10,000 geun between 1915 and 1919 and to 150,000 geun between 1920 and 1934. These increases in the production of fresh ginseng as a raw material for red ginseng were the result of various policies implemented in 1908 with the aim of fostering the ginseng industry, such as prior disclosure of the compensation price for fresh ginseng, loans for cultivation expenditure in new areas, and the payment of incentives to excellent cultivators. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of Japanese imperialism at the time was not to foster the growth of Korean ginseng farming, but to finance the maintenance of its colonial management using profits from the red ginseng business.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2023

The rapid advance of technology has accelerated global warming. As 50.4 percent of South Korea's population is concentrated in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, which has become a considerable emitter of greenhouse gases, the city's average temperature is expected to increase more rapidly than in other areas in the country. A rise in the average temperature would affect everyday life and urban ecology; thus, appropriate measures to cope with the forthcoming disaster are in need. This study analyzed the changes in plant phenological phases from the past to the present based on temperatures (average temperature of Feb, Mar, April) observed in seven different weather stations nearthe Seoul Metropolitan Area (Ganghwa, Seoul, Suwon, Yangpyeong, Icheon, Incheon, and Paju) and the first flowering dates of Plum tree (Prunus mume), Korean forsythia (Forsythia koreana), Korean rosebay (Rhododendron mucronulatum), Cherry tree (Prunus serrulate), Peach tree (Prunus persica), and Pear tree (Pyrus serotina). Then, RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) 2.6 and 8.5 scenarios were used to predict the future temperature in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and how it will affect plant phenological phases. Furthermore, the study examined the differences in the flowering dates depending on various strategies to mitigate greenhouse gases. The result showed that the rate of plant phenological change had been accelerated since the 1900s.If emission levels remain unchanged, plants will flower from 18 to 29 earlier than they do now in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, which would be faster than in other areas in the country. This is because the FFD (First Flowering Date), is highly related to temperature changes. The Seoul Metropolitan Area, which has been urbanized more rapidly than any other areas, is predicted to become a temperature warming, forcing the FFDs of the area to occur faster than in the rest of the country. Changes in phenology can lead to ecosystem disruption by causing mismatches in species interacting with each otherin an ecosystem. Therefore, it is necessary to establish strategies against temperature warming and FFD change due to urbanization.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.87-101
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• 2023

The purpose of this study identifies the production of aggregate every year, and is to understand the supply and demend prospects. In 2021, the total of 135 million m³ of of aggregates was produced in Korea, a slightly increase from the total production of 2020. Of these, about 47 million m³ of sand and about 88 million m³ of gravel were produced. About 46% of total quantity of aggregates were produced with permission and the rest were aggregates produced after declaration. It estimated that of the 135 million m³ of aggregates in Korea in 2020, about 49.6% was produced by screening crushed aggregate, by 36.8% by forest aggregate, 2.6% by land aggregate, 6.8% by sea aggregate and 2.6% by washing each other, and 0.2% by river aggregate. This indicates that screening crushed aggregate and forest aggregate are the main product as in 2021. Leading producing metropolitan governments were Gyeonggi-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Incheon, Gyeongsangnam-do, Chungcheongbuk-do, Gangwon-do, Jeollanam-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do in order decreasing volume. In 2021, aggregates were produced in 148 local governments, and The 10 leading producing local governments were, in descending order of volume, Hwaseong, Ongjin, Paju, Pocheon, Gwangju, Youngin, Cheongju, Gimhae, Anseong, west EEZ. The combined production of the 10 leading local governments accounted for 30% of the national total, and. 47 local governments have produced aggregates of more than 1 million m³ each other. In 148 local governments that produced aggregate, a total of 805 active operations produced aggregate with 372 operations by river, land and forest aggregate, 433 operations by selective crushed and washing aggregate.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.871-885
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• 2023

In 2022, the total of 129 million m³ of aggregate was produced in Korea, a slightly decrease from the total production of 2021. Of these, about 44 million m³ of sand and about 84 million m³ of gravel were produced. About 41% of total quantity of aggregates were produced by permission and the rest were produced after declaration. It estimated that of the 129 million m³ of aggregates in Korea in 2022, about 54.9% was produced by screening crushed aggregate, by 32.8% by forest aggregate, 2.2% by land aggregate, 6.2% by marine aggregate and 3.1% by washing aggregate, and 0.3% by river aggregate. This indicates that screening crushed and forest aggregate are the main producers of domestic aggregate in 2022. Leading producing metropolitan governments were Gyeonggi-do, Gyeongsangnam-do, Chungcheongnam-do, Incheon, Jeollanam-do, Chungcheongbuk-do, Gangwon-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do in order decreasing volume. In 2022, aggregates were produced in 147 local governments, and the 10 leading producing local governments were, in descending order of volume, Hwaseong, Pocheon, Paju, Ongjin, Youngin, Gwangju, west EEZ, Incheon Seo-gu, Namyangju, Asan. The combined production of the 10 leading local governments accounted for 31% of the national total. And 44 local governments have produced aggregates of more than 1 million m³ each other. In 148 local governments that produced aggregate, a total of 800 active operations produced aggregate with 350 operations by river, land and forest aggregate, 450 operations by selective crushed and washing aggregate.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.77-105
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• 1996

The rural problems which we are facing start from the extremely small sized population and the skewed population structure by age and sex. Thus we analyzed the change of the rural population. And we analyzed the recent return migration to the rural areas by comparing the recent in-migrants with out-migrants to rural areas. And by analyzing the rural village survey data which was to show the current characteristics of rural population, we found out the effects of the in-migrants to the rural areas and predicted the futures of rural villages by characteristics. The changes of rural population composition by age was very clear. As the out-migrants towards cities carried on, the population composition of young children aged 0~4 years was low and the aged became thick. The proportion of the population aged 0~4 years was 45.1% of the total population in 1970 and dropped down to 20.4% in 1995, which is predicted to become under 20% from now on. In the same period(1970~1995), the population aged 65 years and over rose from 4.2% to 11.9%. In 1960, before industrialization, the proportion of the population aged 0~4 years in rural areas was higher than that of cities. As the rural young population continuously moves to cities it became lower than that in urban areas from 1975 and the gap grew till 1990. But the proportion of rural population aged 0~4 years in 1995 became 6.2% and the gap reduced. We can say this is the change of the characteristics of in-migrants and out-migrants in the rural areas. Also considering the composition of the population by age group moving from urban to rural area in the late 1980s, 51.8% of the total migrants concentrates upon age group of 20~34 years and these people's educational level was higher than that of out-migrants to urban areas. This fact predicted the changes of the rural population, and the results will turn out as a change in the rural society. However, after comparing the population structure between the pure rural village of Boeun-gun and suburban village of Paju-gun which was agriculture centered village but recently changed rapidly, the recent change of the rural population structure which the in-migrants to rural areas becomes younger is just a phenomenon in the suburban rural areas, not the change of the total rural areas in general. From the characteristics of the population structure of rural village from the field survey on these villages, we can see that in the pure rural villages without any effects from cities the regidents are highly aged, while industrialization and urbanization are making a progress in suburban villages. Therefore, the recent partial change of the rural population structure and the change of characteristics of the in-migrants toward rural areas is effecting and being effected by the population change of areas like suburban rural villages. Although there are return migrants to rural areas to change their jobs into agriculture, this is too minor to appear as a statistic effect.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.88-99
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• 2009

This study was conducted to formulate management guidelines for Natural monumental old trees in Korea through survey of tree vigor and analysis of growing environments. A total of 20 old trees designated as natural monuments in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province were surveyed. The biological characteristics were surveyed with 4 items of species, ages and height of trees. The surrounding environments were surveyed with 2 items of location types and surroundings. The root conditions were surveyed with 2 items of denudation and molding depth. The health conditions were surveyed with 5 items of withering rate, cavity size, bark breakaway rate, damages by blight and insects, and growing tips. The soil conditions were surveyed with 6 items of PH, organic contents, valid phosphoric acid, transposal cations(K, Ca) and soil compaction. On the basis of outcomes of these research items, mutual relations among locations, growings and soil conditions of old trees were analyzed by carring out cross tabulation, correlation, and simple and multiple regression. Management guidelines were presented searching the factors effecting on the health of the monumental old trees. On the biological characteristics, the old trees designated as natural monuments were Pinus bungeana(4 trees), Juniperus chinensis(3 trees), Ginkgo biloba(3 trees), Poncirus trifoliata(2 trees). Actinidia arguta, Wisteria floribunda, Thuja orientalis, Quercus mongolica, Sophora japonica, Fraxinus rhynchophylla, Zelkova serrata, and Pinus densiflora. The tree height ranged from 4.2 to 39.2m, and root collar rounds ranged from 1.01 to 15.2m. On the surrounding environments, The location types ; Gardens(4), historical sites(5), residental sections(3) open agricultural fields(3), mountain hills(3), and near ocean beaches(1) and stream site(1). The surroundings ; 75% denudation of roots, molded more than 10cm except 4 trees(25%). On the health conditions, 1)Withering rate ; Ginkgo biloba(20%) in Yongmoon temple, (5%) in Saki-ri, kanwha-gun, and others had no withering rate. 2) Cavity size ; all subject had $5{\sim}100cm^3$ of cavity. 3) Bark breakaway rate ; Pinus bungeana in Soosong-dong, in the shrine of Confucius, in Samchung-dong, especially high rate of cavity(5~50%) in Seoul area and in Saki-ri, Kangwha-gun were high 45% brakeaway rate. 4) Damages by blight and insects was slight due to managements. 5Growing tips ; In cases of Juniperus chinensis in Changdeok palace and SunnogDang, seoul, growing tips were 1/2, presumably cause by air pollution, and in cases of Fraxinus rhynchophylla in Paju city and Pinus densiflora in BacksaDorip-ri, Icheon city, growing tips were fine, presumably because there were no moldings. On the Soil conditions, Soil pH ranged from 5.2 to 8.3, organic matter contents from 12% to 56%, phosphorus contents from 104 to 618ppm, soil compaction ranged from 7 to 28mm( among them, Denudation was severe with 21~28mm soil compactions in cases of Pinus bungeana in Soosong -dong, Thuja orientalis in Samchung -dong, Ginkgo biloba in the shrine of Confucius and in Yongmoon temple.) Results of cross tabulation, correlation, and regression analysis showed that molding depth was the most serious factor to deteriorate the tree vigor and cambium conductivity. In addition, soil acidity, organic matter contents, disease and insect damages and cambial detachment were also related to the tree vigor. Additional research of these relationships will be needed to conduct more detailed studies. Based on the relationships between the tree vigor and growing environments, it is considered that old trees should be managed to give them more growing spaces and less abuses. Also, molded soils should be removed and further soil-molding around the tree collar should be prohibited. For the construction of systematic management and removal of harmful factors, appropriative management according to spices, persistent monitering of damaged cases and construction of management system through the accumulation of data on the relationships of soil conditions are required.