North Korea Studies Deforestation
11/7/99
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Title: North Korea Studies Deforestation
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 7, 1999
Byline: Christopher Torchia
SEOUL, South Korea -- Lunching recently at one of his
resorts, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il mused that
the capital of rival South Korea was a handsome city
with a grave flaw: bad air.
Certainly, the mountains that border Seoul fade from
sight on a smoggy day and the roads are often choked
with cars, unlike the communist North's Pyongyang, a
capital of parks and boulevards with a sixth of the
population.
Pyongyang, with 2 million residents, has cleaner air
largely because there isn't enough money or gasoline
for more vehicles, belying the dire state of North
Korea's environment.
The key problem is deforestation. So many hills have
been stripped of trees that Kim plans to plant
millions more, a sign that customarily recalcitrant
North Korea may be waking up to outside warnings.
Business and political contacts aside, offers to help
fix the North's environment are a way for the world to
engage the aloof country, which frequently excoriates
South Korea and the United States.
The approach has met with mixed success. Pyongyang has
rebuffed Seoul's requests to cooperate on protection
of coastlines and border flood control despite deadly
floods this summer.
An armistice, not a permanent peace treaty, was signed
at the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War and a heavily
fortified border divides the two Koreas.
Nonetheless, an office of the United Nations
Development Program in Pyongyang is working with North
Korea on reforestation. This year, South Korean
activists sent seeds, fertilizer and greenhouse
equipment for tree-growing after meeting North Korean
officials.
"They showed a feeling of urgency," said Dr. Yoo Jae
Hyun of the Semin Foundation, a non-governmental
organization based in Seoul.
Recently, the North's foreign news outlet, KCNA,
declared that the country had embarked on
"nature-remaking projects."
"A brisk drive is now under way in Pyongyang to plant
thousands of willows and poplars and hundreds of
thousands of flower trees in parks and recreation
grounds," it said.
Coal-burning is the main source of energy in North
Korea, and air pollution is spreading. But most
forests, save for those in tourist areas, have been
chopped down by people desperate for cooking or
heating fuel, and the state has trucked timber for
sale in China.
The clearing of the woods contributed to the
humanitarian crisis that began in 1995 and lingers
today.
Heavy downpours swept away topsoil that was no longer
held in place by tree roots, and the water runoff
swelled floods that devastated crops. In the dry
season, loose earth quickly shed moisture, leading to
water shortages.
North Korea released figures showing that 220,000
people died of famine between 1995 and 1998. U.S. and
South Korean estimates put the number at 2 million to
3 million.
Economic mismanagement and poor crop-terracing
contributed to the disaster. Isolated North Korea, as
a result, relies on outside food aid.
Kim didn't dwell on North Korea's woes in an Oct. 1
chat with Chung Ju-yung, the visiting head of the
Hyundai group, South Korea's biggest conglomerate. But
he gave a hint of environmental consciousness.
"I've seen Seoul in movies and found it to be a
world-class city which looks better than Tokyo," Chung
quoted Kim as saying. "We Koreans can be proud of it,
but it has serious pollution problems."
South Korea now has strict environmental laws, but it
damaged coastlines, waterways and woods in a
decades-long race toward industrialization. Today,
Seoul officials often issue ozone warnings.
Chung wants to build an industrial park in the North
and already operates boat tours for South Korean
tourists to Diamond Mountain, a scenic site there.
The tour project has drawn criticism from
environmentalists who say Hyundai's plans to build
hotels, ski slopes and golf courses by 2030 will
disrupt the ecosystem.
However, impoverished North Korea, which spends
enthusiastically on its military, may put cash ahead
of conservation.