Changes in North Korea's Forestry Policy

Abstract

IntroductionNorth Korean society has been exclusively controlled by the North Korean Workers' Party (NKWP) since 1945. The North has established and runs a centrally planned economy that is unprecedented in any other socialist state. The NKWP has focused on setting up an autarkic socialist system and adheres to a form of development that favors heavy industry. From the beginning of its existence, the North has sought to exploit its available natural resources. Since 80 percent of the land in the North was forest, economic development was highly dependent on the use of forest resources. Consequently, forestry policies were geared toward the use of land, including forest resources, for economic development.Even though the government emphasized the importance of securing natural resources and wood products, it did not actively support the growth and maintenance of forest resources. Ironically, it encouraged the building of slop fields near residential areas to expand farmland, a policy that resulted in the destruction of woodlands. The degradation of forests created disastrous floods and landslides that played a key role in the food and energy crisis of the mid-1990s.The North began to change its forestry policies after 1990. It was faced with an ongoing economic crisis and the collapse of the Eastern European socialist regimes, and the natural disasters in the 1990s severely impeded the North's economic recovery. In response to this situation, it explored various economic recovery measures and finally requested economic assistance from the international community in 1995.1 It also tried to change its forestry policies to rehabilitate despoiled woodlands. For example, the government passed forest legislation in 1992 and established the Department of the Land and Environment Protection in 1996.In 2000, the North started to take more conclusive actions to rehabilitate its forests, seeking the assistance of other nations. Therefore, in this study, we examine the causes and extent of the North's forest degradation and analyze the changes in its forestry policy. The second section deals with forest utilization and degradation in North Korea. The third section analyzes the responses of North Korea to forest degradation since the mid-1990s; it is followed by a conclusion.Forest Utilization and Degradation in North KoreaUnderstanding the Forest and Its Utilization in North KoreaNorth Korea regards nature merely as a means by which to increase the living standards of its people. Thus, its government believes that the forest can be exploited for this purpose, with little regard for natural consequences. Therefore, since coming to power in 1945, the North Korean regime has actively tried to transform the natural landscape for its benefit. In particular, the use and transformation of forests to resolve the problem of scarce natural resources and farmland has been a crucial economic issue.2 The primary goal of North Korea's forestry policy has been to secure a stable supply of forest products, such as timber, in order to construct a socialist society.3 As part of a broader economic development policy, the forestry policy is based on the centrally planned economy.Because of socialist economic management, the forests in North Korea belong to the state, but the right to use the forests is reserved by organizations, enterprises, and groups under state control. Those permitted to use forest resources have an obligation to preserve and exploit them according to the Forest Development Design Body's plan and the characteristics of particular environments. In 1980, in order to maximize the production of forest products, the North devised a policy of allotment by which lands were parceled out to organizations, enterprises, schools, and other groups so as to cultivate and manage forests competitively, despite scarce labor and resources.It is not known how the government decides on the management and exploitation of forests. …