Democratic People Research Articles

First occurrence of Sinamia (Amiiformes, Sinamiidae) from the Upper Cretaceous Seson Formation, Democratic People's Republic of Korea

A new specimen of Sinamiidae was collected from the Upper Cretaceous Seson Formation, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It is similar to Sinamia liaoningensis in shape of the more arched preopercle, relative smaller size of the infraorbitals, more caudal fin rays, more scale rows between the origin of the anal fin and the dorsal margin of the body, and lack of serrated scales. This discovery not only extends the geographic distribution of the sinamiids, but also fills a blank in the sinamiid study in DPRK.

Current status, trends, and predictions in the burden of silicosis in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019.

Silicosis, a severe lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust, predominantly affects workers in industries such as mining and construction, leading to a significant global public health challenge. The purpose of this study is to analyze the current disease burden of silicosis and to predict the development trend of silicosis in the future the world by extracting data from the GBD database. We extracted and analyzed silicosis prevalence, incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 program for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. The association between the Sociodemographic Index (SDI) and the burden of age-standardized rates (ASRs) of DALYs has been examined at the regional level. Jointpoint regression analysis has been also performed to evaluate global burden trends of silicosis from 1990 to 2019. Furthermore, Nordpred age-period-cohort analysis has also been projected to predict future the burden of silicosis from 2019 to 2044. In 2019, global ASRs for silicosis prevalence, incidence, mortality, and DALYs were 5.383, 1.650, 0.161, and 7.872%, respectively which are lower than that in 1990. The populations of 45-59 age group were more susceptible to silicosis, while those aged 80 or above suffered from higher mortality and DALY risks. In 2019, the most impacted nations by the burden of silicosis included China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Chile. From 1990 to 2019, most regions observed a declining burden of silicosis. An "M" shaped association between SDI and ASRs of DALYs for silicosis was observed from 1990 to 2019. The age-period-cohort analysis forecasted a decreasing trend of the burden of silicosis from 2019 to 2044. Despite the overall decline in the global silicosis burden from 1990 to 2019, some regions witnessed a notable burden of this disease, emphasizing the importance of targeted interventions. Our results may provide a reference for the subsequent development of appropriate management strategies.

SOCIOECONOMIC POLICY EVALUATION: PARTISANSHIP AND PARTISAN BIAS EFFECT

Public support of socioeconomic reforms is one of the most important factors for their successful implementation, and conversely, lack of public approval doesn’t allow achieving the expected effect and may result in negative externalities. In this regard, it is relevant to study the origins of people’s opinions and factors affecting their evaluation of social and economic policies. This paper is devoted to the following aspects of this multidimensional problem as partisanship and partisan bias. Their research has been actively promoted by foreign scientists, but so far presented extremely limited in Ukrainian literature. In this paper the critical review of foreign scientific papers devoted to this topic is presented; the main hypotheses about the influence of party identification on public opinion and the effect of partisan bias are highlighted; features of the methodology are noted and research results are summarized. The methodology used by foreign specialists for research of this problem is based on experimental methods, among them the main place belongs to laboratory experiments. A laboratory experiment means observing people’s behavior (participants’ behavior) under strictly controlled conditions when the influence of uncontrolled factors is limited to a minimum. In foreign studies of partisan bias and its influence on citizens' evaluation of socioeconomic policies, laboratory experiments serve as the main tool for testing hypotheses. The results of the research give evidence, on the one hand, that the partisan bias mechanism provides wide possibilities to manipulate the people’s opinion and public opinion in general, on the other hand, that correct objective information about the policy content and goals can significantly weaken the partisan bias effect. Foreign studies prove that party signal influence depends on the people’s properties, policy content, political systems, and party characteristics. In Ukraine, there is a lack its own research in this field, however, as democratic institutions, civil society, and people’s political consciousness and activity develop, these studies become more relevant to the political and economic life in Ukrainian society.

Saving Popular Sovereignty From a Slow Death in the European Union

AbstractThe European Union (EU) faces a pressing challenge with democratic backsliding potentially resulting in an authoritarian member state. EU institutions have sought to safeguard member state democracy. Most normative studies submit that the EU can legitimately intervene based on either current treaties or the theory of militant democracy, but they leave unanswered the fundamental question of the EU's normative political authority. I argue that shared popular sovereignty, which entails Europe's peoples directly authorizing the EU, is the most appropriate principle to theorize the EU's political authority for the foreseeable future. This principle results in a duty for the EU to protect its democratic peoples from backsliding governments and an account of who can legitimately decide on whether backsliding is taking place. A comprehensive normative assessment follows on the democratic legitimacy of various democracy protection measures. My argument bolsters the normative case for EU democracy protection.

Genetic relationship between Pinus species (P. densiflora, P. thunbergii, P. thunbergii ‘Kumyahuksong’) in the democratic people’s Republic of Korea

Genetic relationship between Pinus species (P. densiflora, P. thunbergii, P. thunbergii ‘Kumyahuksong’) in the democratic people’s Republic of Korea

북한의 권력구조 변화와 헌법개정에 관한 상관성 고찰

The Constitution of North Korea was enacted and promulgated on September 8, 1948 as the People's Democratic Constitution, and the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was newly adopted on December 27, 1972, including the 2019 Constitution, which did not guarantee basic human rights such as life, liberty, and property of all people, or operate as a norm to control and limit the supreme power of the state. From a legal normative perspective, North Korea's supreme authority exists beyond the constitution and is not bound by the law, and he has no real limits to the exercise of his constitutional powers. It can be said to be a state system in which the policies of the party and the state and the state's official governance system, such as the constitution, must coincide with the will of the leader, the sole leader. Likewise South Korean rulers in the past amended the Constitution with political intentions to prolong the regime, this paper attempted to examine what the political implications of the supreme power in North Korea's constitutional amendment there were, and find out what role the Constitution played in establishing the hereditary system leading to Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong Un. In addition, it was a question about the North Korea system, how it gave legitimacy to the power succession by using the constitutional normative power for the unique national hereditary succession by blood in the socialist system. For this purpose, in particular, this paper employed North Korea's 1992 constitutional amendment, Kim Jong-il's succession to power, Kim Il-sung's posthumous rule and 1998 constitution, and Kim Jong-il's posthumous Kim Il-sung--Kim Jong-il's constitution as the main subject of research. To understand the correlation between changes in the power structure of North Korea and the constitution, this paper tried to investigate first of all, what there are in the contents of the constitutional paving stone for the succession of Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong Un, and find out Kim Jong-il's posthumous rule developed after Kim Il-sung's death and the intention of constitutionalization work for the deceased Kim Il-sung, and examine how the constitutional acceptance of the newly emerged state guidance guidelines was along with the hereditary succession of state power, and what intention there was in the constitutional reflection of the governing philosophy by deleting the previous highest state position and changing the new state position. It was because of the political intention shown in the amendment of the North Korea Constitution and the desire to approach the practical legal and normative environment of North Korea.

Incompatible sovereigns: Populism, democracy and the two peoples

The article aims to investigate the problematic relationship between populism and democracy by comparing the conceptions of ‘the people’ and popular sovereignty which they presuppose. In the first two sections, the populist and the democratic ‘peoples’ are reconstructed, and the unbridgeable gap dividing them is highlighted. The discussion of the democratic people requires a concise analysis of the main contemporary democratic frameworks, including deliberative democracy, ‘neo-Roman’ republicanism, agonistic democracy. The article works out the implications of the incompatibility between the two ‘sovereign peoples’ identified, and concludes that such an incompatibility undercuts the kinship of populism and democracy. While populism is often said to intertwine with democracy in some way, the article argues that it significantly departs from democratic theory and practice, and belongs to a distinct conceptual space. It cannot be made to overlap with ‘illiberal democracy’, a ‘democratic myth’, a crude electoral majoritarianism, nor does it amount to hiding undemocratic policies into properly democratic justifications. The boundary dividing populism and democracy, therefore, starts unfolding at the level of the conception of the people. While democratic theory invariably assumes a people intended as simultaneously heterogeneous and united, populism conceives of the people as a moral whole, internally undifferentiated, whose homogeneity and intrinsic righteousness preclude the task of specifying what popular sovereignty ultimately means. Such specification, on the other hand, is inescapable for any democrat assuming the people as a composite unity. The last section addresses four possible objections to the argument, variously formulated by Ernesto Laclau and by scholars approaching populism from a post-Laclauian or discursive-performative perspective.

Impact of microphysics schemes on prediction of an extreme heavy rainfall event over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: a case study using WRF model

Impact of microphysics schemes on prediction of an extreme heavy rainfall event over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: a case study using WRF model

Accountability for Human Rights Crimes in North Korea: Jurisdictional Dilemmas in South Korea

Abstract: This article explores how claims alleging serious human rights violations or breaches of international criminal law that occurred in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) might unfold in the courts of the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea) under various differing jurisdictional theories. South Korea has legislation allowing for the exercise of universal jurisdiction, an increasingly widespread judicial mechanism for a national court to hold alleged perpetrators of serious human rights and humanitarian law violations accountable for their actions regardless of where the crime was committed and regardless of the victim's or the perpetrator's nationality. In South Korea, domestic criminal and civil jurisdiction can conceivably be "stretched" to encompass crimes perpetrated on the northern half of the Korean peninsula due to a constitutional provision that denies the existence of a separate North Korean sovereign nation. This article introduces and compares the feasibility and challenges of various jurisdictional approaches in South Korea that could address human rights crimes in North Korea, specifically (a) universal jurisdiction prosecution based on domestic law, (b) domestic criminal prosecution, and (c) civil cases in tort.

All Containment and No Engagement: Australia's Contemporary Policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Australia's interactions with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), henceforth known as North Korea, have ebbed and flowed throughout their seventy‐five‐year history. In times of détente on the Korean Peninsula, Australia actively engaged North Korea and sought to facilitate its integration into the international system. However, during the recent détente in 2018–2019, Canberra broke with tradition and watched on as Trump, Moon, and Kim sought to negotiate a deal towards Pyongyang's denuclearisation. Why has Australia not followed its security partners and engaged, despite being an Indo‐Pacific middle power and an advocate for non‐proliferation? Answers to this question remain unknown in the international relations literature. Therefore, I conducted process tracing and identified seven “critical junctures” in Australia's relationship with North Korea while analysing its responses using middle power theory. Australia's preference for non‐engagement is due to a shift towards a “maximum pressure” policy reliant on sanctions, reducing incentives to engage. This stems from a normative objection to Pyongyang's violation of the Treaty on the Non‐Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and limited material capabilities to persuade North Korea to denuclearise unilaterally. I aim to give an up‐to‐date account of Australia‐North Korea relations and draw attention to a neglected area in Australia's non‐proliferation policy.

Rapid ecosystem services assessment of Mundok Ramsar wetland in Democratic People's Republic of Korea and opportunities to improve well-being

Rapid ecosystem services assessment of Mundok Ramsar wetland in Democratic People's Republic of Korea and opportunities to improve well-being

Temporal trends of tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer between 2010 and 2019, in Asian countries by geographical region and sociodemographic index, comparison with global data.

This study aimed to describe the trends in incidence, mortality, and burden of tracheal, bronchial and lung (TBL) cancer in Asia from 2010 through 2019 and compare with global and other continental data. We collected TBL cancer data from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study from 2010 to 2019 in 49 countries and territories in Asia. For all locations, annual case data and age-standardized rates (ASRs) were used to investigate the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of TBL from 2010 to 2019. The relative difference (%) between years was used to show comparative variations of ASRs for the indicators studied. In 2019, more than 55% of TBL cancer cases and deaths occurred in Asian countries. A total of 57% of lung cancer patients lived in Asia and almost 60% of the global burden of lung cancer was imposed on Asian countries. From 2010 to 2019, incidences, deaths, prevalence cases, and DALYs number of TBL cancer increased over 1.34-, 1.31-, 1.31-, and 1.26-fold, in Asia. During this period, the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR), the age-standardized death rate (ASDR), the age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR), and the age-standardized DALYs rate (DALYs ASR) of TBL cancer decreased by 1, 3, 4, and 4%, respectively. While at the same time, the decreasing trend of these rates globally and in America and in Europe happened faster. In 2019, age-specific incidence, death, prevalence, and DALY cases of TBL cancer were peaking at 65-74, 70-74, 65-69, and 65-69 years, respectively. In 2019, the highest ASIR, ASDR, and DALYs ASR of TBL cancer was observed in East Asia countries and the highest ASPR in high-income Asia Pacific countries. Central Asia and high-income Asia Pacific countries experienced a decreasing trend in ASIR and ASDR, and the South Asia countries experienced the highest increasing trend from 2010 to 2019. ASPR only decreased in Central Asia, and DALYs ASR only increased in South Asia. In 2019, among high sociodemographic index (SDI) Asian countries, Brunei Darussalam had the highest ASIR, ASDR, and DALYs ASR and the Republic of Korea had the highest ASPR. Among high-middle SDIs, Turkey and Georgia; among middle SDIs, China and Armenia; among low-middle SDIs, Mongolia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had the highest ASIR, ASDR, ASPR, and DALY ASR of TBL cancer. Among low SDI Asian countries, Pakistan had the highest ASIR, ASDR, ASPR, and DALY ASR of TBL cancer. Most of the global burden of lung cancer occurs in Asian countries, and the decreasing trend of incidence, death, prevalence, and burden of this cancer in these countries is slower than in other regions. Therefore, the implementation of necessary measures in order to reduce the process of this cancer is considered urgent.

An appraisal of peer-reviewed published literature on Influenza, 2000-2021 from countries in South-East Asia Region.

Influenza poses a major public health challenge in South-East Asia Region (SEAR). To address the challenge, there is a need to generate contextual evidence that could inform policy makers and program managers for response preparedness and impact mitigation. The World Health Organization has identified priority areas across five streams for research evidence generation at a global level (WHO Public Health Research Agenda). Stream 1 focuses on research for reducing the risk of emergence, Stream 2 on limiting the spread, Stream 3 on minimizing the impact, Stream 4 on optimizing the treatment and Stream 5 on promoting public health tools and technologies for Influenza. However, evidence generation from SEAR has been arguably low and needs a relook for alignment with priorities. This study aimed to undertake a bibliometric analysis of medical literature on Influenza over the past 21 years to identify gaps in research evidence and for identifying major areas for focusing with a view to provide recommendations to member states and SEAR office for prioritizing avenues for future research. We searched Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases in August 2021. We identified studies on influenza published from the 11 countries in WHO SEAR in the date range of 1 January 2000-31 December 2021. Data was retrieved, tagged and analyzed based on the WHO priority streams for Influenza, member states, study design and type of research. Bibliometric analysis was done on Vosviewer. We included a total of 1,641 articles (Stream 1: n = 307; Stream 2: n = 516; Stream 3: n = 470; Stream 4: n = 309; Stream 5: n = 227). Maximum number of publications were seen in Stream 2, i.e., limiting the spread of pandemic, zoonotic, and seasonal epidemic influenza which majorly included transmission, spread of virus at global and local levels and public health measures to limit the transmission. The highest number of publications was from India (n = 524) followed by Thailand (n = 407), Indonesia (n = 214) and Bangladesh (n = 158). Bhutan (n = 10), Maldives (n = 1), Democratic People's Republic of Korea (n = 1), and Timor-Leste (n = 3) had the least contribution in Influenza research. The top-most journal was PloS One which had the maximum number of influenza articles (n = 94) published from SEAR countries. Research that generated actionable evidence, i.e., implementation and intervention related topics were less common. Similarly, research on pharmaceutical interventions and on innovations was low. SEAR member states had inconsistent output across the five priority research streams, and there was a much higher scope and need for collaborative research. Basic science research showed declining trends and needed reprioritization. While a priority research agenda has been set for influenza at the global level through the WHO Global Influenza Program since 2009, and subsequently revisited in 2011 and again in 2016-2017, a structured contextualized approach to guide actionable evidence generation activities in SEAR has been lacking. In the backset of the Global Influenza Strategy 2019-2030 and the COVID-19 pandemic, attuning research endeavors in SEAR could help in improved pandemic influenza preparedness planning. There is a need to prioritize contextually relevant research themes within priority streams. Member states must inculcate a culture of within and inter-country collaboration to produce evidence that has regional as well as global value.

Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of the Slender Racer (Orientocoluber spinalis) in South Korea

The slender racer, Orientocoluber spinalis, is a monotypic species found in northeast Asia. We collected 67 O. spinalis samples from the Republic of Korea (hereafter, South Korea) and 7 from China and Mongolia and investigated their genetic diversity and population structure. In South Korea, O. spinalis populations were mainly found on Oeyeondo, Uido, and Udo islands and Woraksan Mountain and showed low genetic diversity in the analysis of concatenated mitochondrial sequences of the cytochrome b (Cytb) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 (ND4) genes. Orientocoluber spinalis populations in South Korea showed low differentiation and likely diverged recently. Orientocoluber spinalis may have colonized the Korean Peninsula from China and Mongolia, but this route is not confirmed due to the lack of samples from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and middle eastern China. Considering its extreme rarity, low population density, and low genetic diversity, O. spinalis should be designated an endangered species in South Korea, as it is in Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan.

Taming the Nuclear Elephant: The US Indo-Pacific Strategy on North Korea

Assessing its coercive diplomacy in retrospect, the United States should deal with the North Korean nuclear issue with a more sophisticated combination of coercive measures and positive inducements to overcome past failures. Simultaneously, based on an analysis of current challenges and opportunities, the United States should consider this nuclear agenda within its Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) with a long-term regional vision. The active engagement of the United States in the North Korean nuclear issue can create opportunities for cooperation with China or provide the United States with the strategic means to influence China. In addition, the US–ROK alliance and US–ROK–Japan trilateral cooperation could be a driving force in resolving the nuclear agenda of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and support the IPS of the United States. Ultimately, the linkage between the US' coercive approach to the DPRK and its IPS could help prevent regional tension and the possible demise of the international nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime, which is threatened by North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

DPRK’S NUCLEAR CONUNDRUM AND THE U.S.-NORTH KOREA NEGOTIATIONS: A NEVER-ENDING SAGA

The challenge of nuclear proliferation in the Korean peninsula since 2006 with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) first nuclear test had not only drawn the global attention but created a perilous situation on the peninsula. Further the Hwasong-15 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) of DPRK that was tested in February 2023 and thereafter has heightened tensions between Washington and Japan with Pyongyang. The United States’ (U.S.) diplomatic efforts to engage North Korea through bilateral means in recent times resulted in the first historic summit in Singapore (2018) and later in Vietnam (2019). Though these are undoubtedly positive developments, however, in the absence of any tangible deal after the Hanoi summit, the big question remains will the U.S. and North Korea end their mutual misperceptions, and work towards a viable solution. At the moment, the very fact that since 2019, the U.S. and North Korea have had no official dialogues is evident that misperceptions and distrust continues and finding any sort of solution is going to be a very difficult task now that North Korea has closed its borders since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The more isolated Pyongyang is, the more belligerent it will become in testing its missiles.

Main Contents of the Law of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the Red Cross Society and Commentary

Abstract On 29 July 2021, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPR Korea) amended and supplemented the Law of the DPR Korea on the Red Cross Society. The Law is a branch law of the DPR Korea that uniquely provides such things as the organization, function, and principles of conduct of the Red Cross Society and use of the Red Cross mark. The amendment and supplementation of the Law further consolidated the legal guarantee for the smooth operation of humanitarian activities of the Red Cross Society in the DPR Korea. This paper provides a summary of the main contents of the Law and comments on the basis of the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the requirements of international humanitarian law, including the recommendations of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on the activities of the Red Cross Society and the use of the Red Cross emblem.

Adapting to Détente: US Policy on Korean Unification in 1968-1973

The article studies the history of the US foreign policy adaptation to détente that started in the late 1960s. By this time the Americans had strong military and political positions on the Korean peninsula. Washington managed to thwart DPRK attempts in 1966–1969 to destabilize the situation in the South. Americans saw growing inter-Korean contacts as a new challenge. With détente gaining momentum, this led to the obsolescence of some American foreign policy instruments in the region, including the US-controlled UN Commission on the Unification and Rebuilding of Korea. Another challenge for the Americans was the North Koreans' «diplomatic offensive,» which strengthened North Korea's position in the world. It tried to use the accumulated political weight to turn the annual debate on the Korean issue in the UN General Assembly from a formality to something real. At the same time, the military threat posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, for example, in the 1973–1975 conflict along the Northern Boundary Line, remained relevant.Nevertheless, in 1968–1973 the Americans succeeded in reshaping their policy toward Korea under conditions of a dramatic improvement in the international situation of the DPRK and settlement of US-Chinese relations. The Americans managed to eliminate the obsolete UN Commission on the Unification and Restoration of Korea with minimal losses. They ensured that the discussion of the Korean question in the United Nations would not have a destructive influence on the internal political life of the South. Under these conditions, the inter-Korean dialogue remained merely a political game of the regimes on the peninsula. Preserving the status quo in the region was the main result of US diplomacy’s manipulative techniques. Such approaches are still relevant for the modern US foreign policy – getting rid of international instruments, which have exhausted their purpose.

Information system-theoretic view on the architecture of smart manufacturing systems: a case study in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Information system-theoretic view on the architecture of smart manufacturing systems: a case study in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Indirect impacts of future urban expansion on ecosystem services in the transnational area of China, North Korea, and Russia

AbstractAssessing the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services is important for understanding the cascading effect of urbanization on the environment. However, few studies have assessed the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services. In this study, the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services refer to the impacts of cropland displacement on ecosystem services, which is triggered by urban expansion. Taking the transnational area of Changbai Mountain as a study area, we assessed the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services during 2015–2050. We first quantified three key ecosystem services, that is, carbon storage (CS), water retention (WR), and air purification (AP). Then, the future urban expansion and cropland displacement were simulated by using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and the zoned Land Use Scenario Dynamics‐urban (LUSD‐urban) model. Finally, the indirect impacts of urban expansion on ecosystem services were assessed. The results indicated that influenced by the cropland displacement, the CS, WR, and AP will decrease by 0.03%–0.16%, 0.01%–0.06%, and 0.03%–0.16%, respectively. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) side will be the foremost region of ecosystem service indirect losses. The indirect losses of ecosystem services on the DPRK's side will be significantly higher than those on the Chinese side and Russian side. Meanwhile, on the DPRK's side, the indirect losses of CS and AP will be 1.01–1.74‐times and 1.01–1.67‐times the direct losses of these two ecosystem services, respectively. In addition, cropland displacement will cause significant trade‐offs between food provisioning services and regulation services. To promote sustainable development in this transnational area, we propose to make effective land‐use policies to optimize cropland displacement and take ecosystem services as effective tools to guide land‐use planning.