Policy News - September 29, 2004

State of North Korea’s environment

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea faces significant environmental challenges, according to the first assessment of its environment, which was conducted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Korean authorities. When the report was released in late August, UNEP and the Korean government signed a framework agreement to guide joint activities in environmental protection, including projects to improve data collection and monitoring. The report calls for better protection of water resources, highlighting, for example, the discharge of untreated wastewater and sewage into rivers. Air pollution is another concern because the country relies heavily on coal as an energy source; a fivefold increase in coal use by 2020 is predicted. Other priorities are land degradation, forest depletion, and biodiversity protection. State of Environment DPR Korea 2003 is at www.rrcap.unep.org/reports/soe/dprksoe.cfm.