• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.19-28
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• 2020

Purpose - This study aims to lay the foundation for a desirable direction to solve future environmental problems through framework research on environmental cooperation according to distribution of urbanization between South and North Korea. The article also attempts to explore solution to two Koreas' environmental problems from the cooperative perspective between South and North Korea and draw future policy tasks. Research design, data, and methodology - For methodology, North Korea's legal system to cope with disasters is taken into consideration in terms of literature review. This study also analyzes a series of processes related to North Korea's disaster management through case study, and draws policy measures for North and South Korea's cooperation scope and methods. Result - The results support that North Korea is very vulnerable to environmental disasters due to food shortages, economic sanctions, and enormous natural disaster damages including flood damages occurring each year, because of the lack of disaster prevention infrastructure such as river maintenance. Conclusion - At the current time when North and South Koran exchange and cooperation increase, a disaster management cooperative system is needed for the areas where South and North Korea manage through division. It also suggests that there is a need to establish regulations and procedures for support items in advance for a quick response to disasters in North Korean region.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.39 no.6 s.105
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• pp.933-954
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• 2004

This paper considers critically the conceptual development of international environmental security, and to explore some limitations which seem to have made difficult the construction of regional environmental governance among North-East Asian countries. The recently emerging concept of environmental security has turned the traditional or realistic meaning of security to the neo-liberal and the political-economic one. On the basis of a reconsideration of these newly developed meanings of security, this paper has reviewed critically some work which have focused on the concepts of environmental regime and of environmental governance. To formulate a true environmental governance, it is suggested that we need a theoretical analysis on the economic and political contexts and a practical development of civil society. From this point of view, the economic structure of labour division, the political tension and military opposition in the region, and the immaturity and exclusiveness of civil consciousness can be pointed out as some limitations of environmental security to be constructed in the North-East Asian region. A true environmental security in this region requires formation of reciprocal economic relationship, development of regional institutions for political trust among countries, and improvement of interaction between non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.1145-1150
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• 2004

Dust phenomenon is a critical thing in the East Asian countries. However, it is quite recent that Asian dust has drawn much attention and the scientific investigation of dust particles began. In this study, the recognition for Asian-dust in Northeast Asia region was analyzed. The survey results show that the people generally recognize the origins and seriousness of Asian dust and understand the difficulty in solving the dust related problems. However, approaches to figure out Asian dust have many difficulties and limits in scientific, economic and political points of view and more detailed road map is needed based on government policy.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.30-43
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• 2003

The geography, circulation pattern, and ecology show that the semi-closed seas of Northwest Pacific be managed as one complete system. Ongoing multilateral cooperative efforts relevant to marine environmental protection in the Northwest Pacific area, include the Working Group for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) established under the auspices of WNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commissions, the UNDP/GEF Programme on Prevention and Management of Marine Pollution in East Asian Seas (PEMSEA), the North Pacific Marine Science Organization(PICES), and the United Nations Environment Programme(WNEP)'s Northwest Pacific Action Plan(NOWPAP). The present report firstly describes the current situations on the existing regional cooperative regimes for marine environmental conservation in the Northwest Pacific region, with a special respect to the Northwest Pacific Action Plan(NOWPAP) which was adopted in 1994 by Japan, People's Republic of China, Republic of Korea and Russian Federation. Then, problems of the existing regimes are also discussed, together with the suggestion of the possible solutions, focusing on NOWPAP. Suggestions include: 1) the Northeast Asian countries should understand the importance of legally-binding regional convention, and should build up any legally-binding instrument which can function as a big umbrella for real regional cooperation without prejudice to the rights of the States, 2) At present stage, it will be possible to make a regional convention flexible without prejudice to the sovereign right of the States or territorial issues; 3) taking into account that the region often faces many generic political problems that often inhibit the effective collective actions on environmental issues, the leadership from UNEP or other international organizations is required; 4) strong institutional and financial framework should be made, and 5) multilateral efforts to respond to the new marine environmental threats should be taken at the regional level in order to protect the coastal and marine environments in the Northwest Pacific.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2017

Nepal is a landlocked mountainous country in South Asia, located between China to the north and India to the south, east, and west. As such, wastewater management has become one of the most significant problems in urban area of Nepal. In Nepal, the centralized wastewater treatment systems were dysfunctional due to high cost of operation, discontinuous power supply, lack of proper maintenance and proper technical workforce to address the issues. As such, constructed wetlands (CW) were applied to treat various secondary wastewater as alternative to wastewater treatment facilities. Generally, efficiency and sustainability of CW technology depends on proper operation and maintenance and active community involvement. This study summarizes information about 26 CW in Nepal. Specifically, factors including data banking, removal efficiency, quality of discharged water, compliance to water quality standard of Nepal and operation and maintenance were investigated. Considering removal efficiency per pollutant, Ka-1 achieved the greatest reduction for most pollutant followed by B-1, L-3, Ka-5 and K-1. Nepal has practiced CW technology for more than 2 decades but currently, development of technology was interrupted by the inefficient performance of existing facilities. Public awareness about the technology, natural disaster, unavailability of specified substrate materials, lack of fund for further research and experiments has hindered the expansion of technology. In spite of these concerns, CW was still proven as an alternative solution to the present wastewater problems in urban areas of Nepal.