A New Threat Currently Ignored: Need for Inter-Korean Environmental Cooperation

Abstract

The situation in North Korea shows how environmental and economic stresses on a population can exacerbate the divisions within and between societies and create multiple kinds of security threats for an entire region. A host of new problems related to environmental degradation in the country is further straining the already tense relationship between the two Koreas and creating new security problems in the region. This study builds on the approach taken by the former President Kim Dae-jung and current President Roh Moo-hyun, and their respective Sunshine and Peace and Prosperity Policies, examining how South Korean efforts to help its impoverished neighbor deal with its environmental problems, famine, and economic crisis can contribute towards building a foundation to promote peace across the DMZ. This study begins by considering several of the more serious environmental problems that have affected North Korea. Special attention is focused on the North Korean environmental problems that have especially significant security implications: environmental refugees and the two dams that have been built on the upper reaches of the Han River and the Imjin River. The main goal of this study is to examine ways to protect North Korea's environment, which could have the added benefit of enhancing the environmental security of the Korean peninsula in the long run. The study concludes with a discussion of the possibility of North-South environmental cooperation to solve North Korea's pressing environmental problems. South Korea should take the initiative to help its neighbor strengthen its endogenous capacities in order to re-orientate its development along a more sustainable path. This can best be done by improving North Korea's scientific understanding of its own environmental problems through exchanges of scientific and technological knowledge and by enhancing the development, adaptation, diffusion, and transfer of pollution control and environmental technologies. It's leaders must be convinced that regional cooperation can help them break the vicious cycle of environmental degradation and food scarcity. Concerted action taken now by both countries will help prevent more serious consequences in the future.