How does the climate of the northern part of the Korean Peninsula differ from that of the southern part?

A Study on Constructing a Cooperative System for South and North Koreas to Counteract Climate Change in the Korean Peninsula(Ⅲ)

• Author Myeong, Soojeong
• Researchers
• Date 2013-10-31

Since the Industrial Revolution, greenhouse gases that had been accumulated in the atmosphere has caused global climate change, which is rapidly accelerating recently. The climate change has increased its damaging effects on the earth, with extreme climate events such as floods, droughts, cold and heat waves, and typhoons. Since North Korea has a high level of climate vulnerability and a low level of adaptive capacity, it suffers greatly from the damages of climate change; therefore, it is necessary for South and North Koreas to cooperate in order to jointly respond to the climate change on the Korean Peninsula.
Under these circumstances, the present research has been conducted as a 3-year interdisciplinary project to build a foundation for South-North cooperation for the peninsula-wide climate change response, in an effort to preemptively respond to the ever-deteriorating climate change and to convert the climate change crisis into an opportunity for a new take-off. As a part of the continuing research following the first- and second-year studies, the present study analyzed the impacts of climate change on the Korean Peninsula and their prospects, surveyed the latest state of climate-change-related areas, supplemented climate vulnerability assessment, and analyzed the cases of international cooperation. Based on the results of these surveys and analyses, the study proposed cooperative projects for climate change response on the Korean Peninsula and searched for their implementation strategies.
Over the past 133 years, the average temperature of the globe has risen by 0.85℃. The climate change of the Korean Peninsula is happening at a greater rate than that of the globe; the average annual temperature on the Korean Peninsula has risen by 1.2℃ over the past 30 years (i. e., from 1981 to 2010). North Korea’s warming is occurring more rapidly than that of South Korea; North Korea’s average temperature rising by 0.45℃/10 years is 1.3 times greater than South Korea’s rising by 0.36℃/10 years. The precipitation on the Korean Peninsula has been slowly increasing; however its intensity has become greater, increasing the risk of disastrous rainfalls. North Korea’s recent climate patterns show extreme climate phenomena such as cold waves in winter seasons and heat waves in summer seasons. Having insufficient societal infrastructures to respond to natural disasters, North Korea is suffering from increased natural disasters such as floods and droughts, which produce many victims who need food and health cares from international communities.
In a questionnaire survey with North Korean defectors on their perceived climate change phenomena, the rise of average temperature and severe cold winters were pointed out by the most respondents, and extreme cold waves and droughts were most frequently mentioned as the extreme climate change events. More than 60 percent of the participants responded that they had experienced climate change related damages, among which cold-wave related and drought-related damages were perceived to be most serious, implying energy shortage and insufficient societal basic infrastructures. North Korean defectors attributed the climate change disasters to deforestation, soil loss, and energy shortage as the biggest causes, along with lack of technology, money, and infrastructures. They predicted that climate-related damages would deteriorate in the future compared with time when they resided in North Korea, raising the necessity for strengthening North Korea's adaptive capacity as early as possible.
In order to estimate the regional vulnerability of North Korea, a new assessment was conducted on the available data, in a new vulnerability assessment framework, which was improved from the old one used in the previous year. Exposure to the climate change was most severe in South Hamgyeong Province, South Hwanghae Province, and Gangwon Province, followed by South Pyeongan Province, North Hwanghae Province, and North Hamgyeong Province. Climate change sensitivity was highest in South Hamgyeong Province, followed by South Pyeongan Province, Yanggang Province, and Jagang Province. The adaptive capacity was greatest in Pyongyang City, followed by South Pyeongan Province, South Hamgyeong Province, and Gangwan Province, though the differences between the three provinces were not as great as that between Pyongyang City and the other three provinces. When the new vulnerability assessment framework, which included exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, was used, South Hamgyeong Province turned out to be most vulnerable, followed by South Hwanghae Province, North Hambyeong Province, North Hwanghae Province, and Gangwon Province. In contrast, Pyongyang was least vulnerable, thanks to its high adaptive capacity as well as low exposure and sensitivity. It is necessary to seek cooperative projects to strengthen the adaptive capacity of the vulnerable areas.
For South-North cooperative projects to cope with climate change, monitoring and predicting the peninsula's climate change together and information sharing regarding flood damages along the borderline can be started. Then, helping North Korea to build area-specific cooperation plans as well as long- and mid-term plans such as national climate adaptation planning. As North Korea has long been suffering from food and energy shortage and natural disasters, the areas that require immediate actions include energy, agriculture, natural disaster, water, health, and forest and ecosystem. To be more specific, energy-related cooperation means electricity supply and renewable energy facility construction. In the area of agriculture, climate-adaptive crops development and construction of a climate-adaptive agricultural production system can be cooperated on. Water management can be cooperatively worked out for water quality control and water resources management. The area of health can include preventing the spread of climate-change sensitive infectious diseases and malaria control. Coping with climate and natural disasters can be jointly worked out through constructing a joint weather-watch network and an early warning system of natural disasters. The forest and ecosystem part can find cooperation in monitoring biological variation according to climate change and in forestation, which can bring forth a variety of benefits because forestation can not only protect environment but also function as the carbon sink. The area-specific cooperations can have synergy effects when combined with the projects to strengthen the local people's adaptive capacity.
At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is the world's biggest discussion space on climate change, a new global climate change regime is being discussed that involves all the concerned nations. Other issues being discussed include raising and operating a green climate fund as a long-term financial resource, implementing REDD+ to prevent developing countries' deforestation, and supporting the drawing of national adaptation plans of developing countries that are vulnerable to climate change. Nevertheless, the international community has not reached agreement yet as to greenhouse gas mitigation sufficient enough to stabilize the global climate system. As the damages from climate change in the vulnerable developing countries grow bigger, these countries are escalating their demand for support for climate change adaptation.
Such a movement led the 19th general meeting of concerned nations to establish an international mechanism to respond to the losses and damages resulting from climate change. International cooperation is going to be intensified in order to support developing countries. As a member of the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), North Korea needs to take advantage of the international climate change response mechanism to the maximum. Besides the UNFCCC, the world community has a variety of organizations like Asia Development Bank and the World Food and Agriculture Organization in order for the developed countries to help developing countries. If North Korea wants to receive support for climate change adaptation from the international community, it has to satisfy necessary qualifications.
South-North cooperation plans should be systematically carried out on mid-term and long-term bases depending on the state of inter-Korean relationships. When the relationship is stiffened, short-term projects could be implemented with the cooperation of the international community and non-governmental organizations. Particularly, if the two Koreas' political relationship is stiff, mutual exchanges in non-political areas, like scientists, can be attempted not to cut off the relationships. If the inter-Korean relationship improves, mid-term and long-term projects can be carried out through strengthened direct contacts. In order to effectively and tactfully carry out new climate change response projects jointly, the new projects should be aligned and harmonious with existing project plans. Climate-change related projects need to become the major part among various South-North cooperation projects, as the climate change is expected to be increasingly severe. Mid-term and long-term benefits of the cooperation and the feasibility of fund raising should be taken into consideration, as well as the economic value.
In order to seek inter-Korean cooperation strategies, the present study surveyed inter-German and East-asian environmental cooperation cases. These cases demonstrated the importance of our awareness of the fact that climate change is the common problem facing the two Koreas and that this problem should be solved through joint efforts. North Korea has long been experiencing energy shortage and deforestation, which has deteriorated top-soil loss and natural disasters. As a result, North Korea will have more and more serious climate vulnerability. As North Korea's climate vulnerability will cause negative effects not only on North but also on South Korea, eventually increasing the cost of national reunification. Therefore, efforts need to be made to construct a joint foundation for climate change response like South and North Koreas' Climate-Change Response Council. Such a movement will become a foundation for the peninsula's environmental community that will bring forth a green detente, and eventually a turning point in improving South-North relationships.

The present study has some limitations because of the unavailability of access to the North Korean regions and limited data on North Korea. The vulnerability assessment system development was especially affected by such limited data. Care needs to be taken when interpreting the results of the vulnerability assessment, as they depend on the input data. In addition, since the present study focused on understanding the overall picture in the framework that encompasses various areas of climate-change response, individual areas and regions were not sufficiently discussed, nor was the East-Asian cooperation system for the climate-change adaptation of the Korean Peninsula fully discussed. Future research is suggested on the improvement of vulnerability assessment system, the economic value of area-specific joint projects, and the cooperation in East Asia.

• Prev The plans to extend polluters-pay principle to treat domestic waste of volume-based waste fee system
• Next Development Plan for Environment Information System of KEI