북한 환경상태: 하수도와 폐기물 = Environmental Status in North Korea: Sewerage and Waste

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Ⅰ. Introduction
1. Background
□ After the division of the Korean Peninsula into the South Korea and the North Korea, there is little information released on the North Korea’s internal situation due to its closed policy emphasizing anti-toadyism and independency, and almost no information on the environmental issues.
ㅇ According to international organizations such as the United Nation Environment Program (UNEP), news media, and some academic papers, environmental pollution is a serious problem in the North Korea.
□ In the North Korea, due to a very low standard of living, the generation of household waste is not great except in some areas such as Pyongyang City. It is expected that the environmental impact of industrial waste may be greater than that of household waste.
ㅇ It is expected that the types and characteristics of waste from industrial areas in the North Korea are varied depending on the type of industry. Most waste from industries may have hazardous characteristics.
ㅇ For example, the North Korea produces hazardous substances such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) whose manufacturing and usage are banned all over the world. In addition, since treatment facilities for these substances are not established, they can be the cause of serious pollution in the surrounding environment.
□ While maintaining the hereditary regimes of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un, the North Korea continues to suffer from shortages of supplies resulting from severe isolation due to UN sanctions against the country.
ㅇ In order to solve the chronic shortage of supplies in North Korea, waste such as scrap iron, scrap copper, waste paper, and others are collected and recycled by the government based on the concept of self-rehabilitation.
ㅇ At the time of Kim Jong-il, the North Korea society began to recognize environmental issues, and now it is actively emphasizing recycling as a means to secure materials.
ㅇ Entering the era of Kim Jong-un, in 2020, the Recycling Act was adopted to emphasize self-rehabilitation and stipulate recycling.
□ Therefore, this study aims to grasp the basic status and implications of waste management in the North Korea through domestic and foreign news media, reports and academic papers, and publications in the North Korea.
2. Aims and scope
□ The purpose of this study is to analyze the status and implications of waste management in the North Korea through the collection of law and literature information related to waste management.
ㅇ Investigation of the status of waste management based on literature information related to waste management in the North Korea
ㅇ Finding implications and management plans for waste management in the North Korea
□ The main research scope including law and literature collected in this study covers the following four categories.
ㅇ Laws and systems related to waste management in the North Korea
ㅇ Current status of waste classification and waste management in the North Korea presented in the literature.
ㅇ Analysis of waste management and treatment in the North Korea.
ㅇ Implications of waste management in the North Korea and management schemes.
Ⅱ. Laws and Systems on Waste Management in the North Korea
1. Status of laws on waste management in the North Korea
□ In various fields such as politics, military affairs, society, and environment in the North Korea, different characteristics appear depending on the eras of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un.
ㅇ During the era of Kim Il-sung (1945-1994), the level of industrial and agricultural production decreased significantly after the Korean War. In 1976, agricultural production was promoted through the Five-point Policy for Nature Reorganization, and environmental problems at that time were not recognized at all in the social development process in the North Korea.
ㅇ During the era of Kim Jong-il (1997-2011), the principle of prioritizing facilities for environmental conservation in the construction of factories and houses was presented in Kim Jong-il’s book, On Strenthening Land Management, recognizing environmental issues in the North Korea.
- After the adoption of the Environmental Protection Act in 1986, various environmental laws were enacted by environmental medium during the era of Kim Jong-il, and several revisions and supplements were carried out.
- In addition, during the March of Suffering in the 1990s, they suffered from a severe shortage of supplies, and to solve this poverty problem, the government demanded that people abide by the principle of self-rehabilitation in their economic life.
ㅇ After entering the era of Kim Jong-un (2012-present), the North Korea is still showing interest in environmental pollution and waste management through Kim Jong-un’s work, On Bringing About a Revolutionary Turn in Land Administration in Line With the Demands for Building a Thriving Socialist Country.
- In order to solve the economic problem that has become serious with the sanctions against the North Korea that persist even during the era of Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-un is emphasizing the recycling based on the concept of self-rehabilitation. In addition, the Recycling Act was adopted in 2020 to stipulate the directive and responsibility with respect to recycling.
2. Laws on waste management in the North Korea
□ Classification of laws related to the environmental sector in the North Korea
ㅇ It can be divided into 11 areas: Environmental basic, water quality and water resources, marine environment, waste and resources circulation, air quality, soil, chemicals, environmental health, forest and ecosystem, urban management, environmental assessment, and others.
□ Laws on waste management in the North Korea
ㅇ Six laws include regulations on waste management: the Environmental Protection Act, the Waste Treatment Act, the Recycling Act, the Public Hygiene Act, the Urban Beautification Act, and the Pyongyang City Management Act.
3. Systems related to waste in the North Korea
□ In the North Korea, systems related to waste include the 8·3 people’s consumer goods production movement and the government purchases (see Table 2).
ㅇ The 8·3 people’s consumer goods production movement was started to increase the production of consumer goods. This is to use disused materials in institutions and cottage industries to produce consumer goods, but the quality of the produced consumer goods is very low.
ㅇ The major reasons for government purchases are to meet the demand for food and to secure raw materials for the manufacturing of industrial products. In order to secure more raw materials, disused materials such as scrap iron, scrap copper, and others are included as target items.
Ⅲ. Classification and Management of Waste in the North Korea and Literature Review
1. Classification of waste in the North Korea
□ Classification of waste under the Waste Treatment Act
ㅇ Waste is classified into: general waste, toxic waste, and radioactive waste.
ㅇ However, a specific list of waste has not been established, and the concept of the sources of waste is not reflected.
□ Various terminologies related to waste are used in laws and the news media such as the Rodong Sinmun, academic journals, and other publications.
□ TTherefore, the classification of waste in the North Korea was inferred from the contexts used in literature and the testimony of defectors from the North Korea.
ㅇ The resulting waste classification system of the North Korea is based on the evidence presented in < Table 3 >.
2. Status of waste generation and treatment in the North Korea
□ Information on the national status of waste generation and treatment of the North Korea is not found, the scope is limited to Pyongyang City, and the survey period is limited to 2008 - 2010.
□ Status of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation and its treatment
ㅇ In Pyongyang City, about 580,000 to 614,000 tons of MSW was generated annually, and coal ash accounted for 64 - 68% of the total MSW, which is because coal is used as an energy source in households.
ㅇ According to a recent literature, 69% of MSW was reused and recycled, 28.7% was landfilled, and 2.3% was incinerated.
ㅇ In addition, the treatment of MSW differs between the metropolitan area and the rural area.
- In Pyongyang City and some metropolitan areas, ash is used as construction material, and organic waste is mixed with ash and used as fertilizer.
- In particular, mixing ash with organic waste is to meet the amount of fertilizer allocated by the government.
- In rural areas, the amount of MSW is very small, because most of MSW is reused due to a lack of materials necessary for daily life.
□ Status of Industrial Solid Waste (ISW) generation and its treatment
ㅇ About 564,000 tons of ISW was generated annually in Pyongyang City, and coal ash accounted for 55% of the total ISW, which is due to the use of coal in two power plants in Pyongyang City.
ㅇ For ISW treatment, reuse and recycling accounted for the highest at 76.3%, followed by landfill at 23.7% and incineration at 0.0%.
□ In the treatment of MSW and ISW, the portion of reuse and recycling is high, so it can be seen that the management level is high from a quantitative perspective. However, considering the reports of international organization and the testimonies of defectors from the North Korea, the actual level of waste management is estimated to be very low.
□ Contamination due to inadequate treatment and management of waste
ㅇ As to the status of pollution due to treatment and management of waste, UNEP (2012) presented information on heavy metal content in urban waste, soil contamination by waste treatment, and soil contamination around some metal refineries and mines.
ㅇ Among the heavy metals in urban waste, the amounts of arsenic, lead, and zinc exceed the standard. Organic substances and sewage sludge among all types of urban waste are recycled by composting, so there is concern about soil and ground water contamination by arsenic, lead, and zinc.
ㅇ Information on soil contamination due to waste treatment was presented in 2005 and 2009. Although it did not exceed the standard limits of heavy metals, the amount of heavy metal in soils tends to increase and may affect the environment in the near future.
ㅇ The measured values of cadmium, mercury, arsenic, and lead in soil around metal refineries and mines exceed the standard limits. It is estimated that slag or sludge from wastewater treatment is not properly managed.
Ⅳ. Analysis of Waste Management in the North Korea
□ The waste management in North Korea was analyzed according to five categories: status of recycling promotion, MSW management, ISW management, waste in the mining sector, and the management of imported waste.
□ Status of recycling promotion
ㅇ In the North Korea, the importance of government purchases is emphasized while recycling is promoted, and the duty of each household to collect disused materials such as scrap iron, scrap copper, waste paper, and others increased by about 20% in 2020 compared to 2018. This imposed a heavy burden on each household.
ㅇ In addition, successful cases of recycling in the North Korea are being advertised. In most cases, plastic waste was recycled to manufacture products such as paint and shoe soles and construction materials. These recycling technologies are not advanced technologies which are at the low and basic level.
□ MSW management
ㅇ In some places in the North Korea, MSW is burned in open fields because there is a lack of means to transport MSW.
ㅇ Considering that the packaging waste that entered the ocean in the North Korea was discovered on Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea, the capacity of waste treatment facilities is low in the North Korea.
□ ISW management
ㅇ ISW management is a very important matter to show the overall environmental pollution in the North Korea because the hazardous characteristics of ISW are not considered in the industrial sector.
ㅇ Among various industries in the North Korea, the chemical industries located in Nampo and Sunchon manufacture produced persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as DDT and PCBs.
ㅇ In particular, discarded PCBs flows into residential areas and production facilities, affecting the health of residents and workers.
□ Waste in the mining sector
ㅇ Coal, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and non-metal mining is carried out in the North Korea. However, overburden piles, waste rock, and leachate from tailing storage facilities are mismanaged and flowing into nearby rivers, resulting in severe water pollution.
□ Management of imported waste
ㅇ With respect to imported waste in the North Korea, the issue of environmental pollution caused by the imported waste has been raised by the news media since the 1990s.
ㅇ Due to a lack of transportation means in the North Korea, in particular, imported waste is left at ports, becoming a source of pollution in the marine environment.
ㅇ Nevertheless, waste is continuously imported to earn income in foreign currency.
Ⅴ. Implications of Waste Management in the North Korea and Management Schemes
□ From the result of the analysis on waste management in the North Korea, the implications and a waste management plan were examined according to six categories.
□ First, there is a need for a clear classification and scope of waste.
ㅇ Due to the insufficient classification and scope of waste, the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders are unclear.
ㅇ Therefore, it is desirable to make it easy to classify and identify types of waste by setting detailed types and assigning a code number.
□ Second, it is necessary to continuously prepare statistical data on the generation and treatment of waste.
ㅇ Numerical information on the generation and treatment of waste in the North Korea is limited to that from the period of 2008 - 2010 for Pyongyang City. With limited information of waste, it is difficult to understand the types and the characteristics of waste.
ㅇ Therefore, the range of statistics for waste collection, treatment, and recycling should be expanded to cover the entire nation and the statistical data for waste management should be continuously accumulated.
□ Third, it is necessary to systematically manage hazardous waste taking into account the management priority of industrial areas.
ㅇ There is little information about waste in industrial areas, so there is a limit to accurate evaluation. When POPs such as DDT and PCBs are discarded, proper management can not be carried out without information.
ㅇ In the future, it may be necessary to perform appropriate management for all types of waste according to the international standards.
ㅇ However, it is difficult for the North Korea to meet international standards, so it is necessary to set priorities for waste management according to the toxicity and the amount of waste.
□ Fourth, the basic management of waste in mining activities is required.
ㅇ Due to insufficient management of mine waste, mine waste such as tailings and overburden enters rivers and cause pollution and damage to surrounding agricultural areas, leading to human health problems.
ㅇ Therefore, it is necessary to set priorities for the proper management of mining waste in the North Korea and establish a basic management plan that can be continuously implemented.
□ Fifth, it is necessary to develop systematic recycling technologies.
ㅇ The North Korea’s recycling technologies are mainly basic technologies such as composting and block manufacturing.
ㅇ In order to improve the quality of recycling in the North Korea, systematic and continuous technology development should be carried out based on the cooperation with the advanced countries.
□ Sixth, it is necessary to prepare regulations for the management of imported waste.
ㅇ Although the North Korea is a signatory to the Basel Convention, waste imported for the purpose of earning income in foreign currency is left at ports without any management. Hence, it is necessary to clearly establish regulation for the management of imported waste.
Ⅵ. Conclusion and Suggestion
□ Conclusion
ㅇ Waste management regulation in six laws were analyzed: Environmental Protection Act, Waste Treatment Act, Recycling Act, Public Hygiene Act, Urban Beautification Act, Pyongyang City Management Act.
ㅇ In the North Korea, the 8·3 people’s consumer goods production movement and government purchases related to the reuse and recycling of waste were carried out. In 2020, the Recycling Act was adopted to force and promote recycling through self-rehabilitation.
ㅇ In waste classification, the detailed types of waste were not set, and the generation source was not reflected.
ㅇ In Pyongyang City, about 580,000 to 614,000 tons of MSW was generated annually according to the literature in 2018 and 2019, and 69% of MSW was recycled, 28.7% was landfilled, and 2.3% was incinerated.
ㅇ In Pyongyang City, about 564,000 tons of ISW was generated annually, and coal ash accounted for the largest amount of total ISW.
ㅇ In the North Korea, PCBs and DDT are continuously manufactured and used, and they can leak and flow into the factories and residential areas, adversely affecting the health of workers and people. Also, the heavy metal content such as arsenic, lead, and mercury was increasing in the soil near factories and metal refineries due to insufficient waste management capabilities.
ㅇ The following six implications and management plans were drawn up for the management of waste in the North Korea: ① clear classification and scope of waste, ② continuous accumulation of statistical data on the generation and treatment of waste, ③ hazardous waste management in consideration of the management priority of toxicity and amount in industrial areas, ④ need for basic management of mining waste, ⑤ systematic development of diverse recycling technologies, and ⑥ the establishment of regulations on the management of imported waste management.
□ nterpretations and assumptions regarding waste management in the North Korea based on available information
ㅇ Interpretations of collected information
- Some environmental laws of the North Korea can be found in the Unification Legislation Database, but the latest information cannot be collected.
- Documented information on the status of waste generation and treatment in the North Korea is mainly presented in the UNEP (2012) report.
- Through the media in the North Korea, such as the Rodong Sinmun, and domestic and foreign media, the progress of recycling and the problem of imported waste were identified.
ㅇ Assumption
- Documented information on the waste management in the North Korea is limited to some regions and time periods.
- Even though reuse and recycling are emphasized in the regulation, it is hard to understand the level of recycling technologies with the existing information of waste management.
- International cooperation can be a way to conduct more extensive research on waste management and recycling in the future.