Climate change in North Korea

North Korea is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to its weak food security, which in the past has led to widespread famine.

[2] In the 2013 edition of Germanwatch's Climate Risk Index, North Korea was judged to be the seventh hardest hit by climate-related extreme weather events of 179 nations during the period 1992–2011.

[4][5] As a result of its mountainous geography as well as the onset of sea level rise and increasing frequency of extreme weather events, the biggest climate change-related concern for North Korea is food security.

[5] Since higher-quality anthracite is reserved for export, the majority of domestic coal burned is of very low quality leading to high rates of air pollution.

In its Environment and Climate Change Outlook Report, the North Korean government acknowledge that extreme weather events, such as droughts and flooding, pest outbreaks, forest and land mismanagement and industrial activities have degraded soil productivity on a large scale.

[17][18] Following an 18-month drought in 2014, the North Korean government declared national emergencies in 2017 and 2018 due to low food production in key provinces, resulting in major shortages across the country.

[24] This compliance and international cooperation on climate change comes partially from a genuine concern for environmental protection, but is also a vehicle for receiving foreign assistance and aid.

[25] North Korea has registered several Clean Development Mechanism projects to the UNFCCC in order to reduce its emissions - these include hydropower stations and methane reduction programs.

North Korean totalitarianism, which is based on total control by the state, is largely unable to deal with major disruptions to economic growth, food production and energy generation resulting from climate change as totalitarian control requires more resources than more common decentralised governance - as such, climate change limits the ability of the regime to uphold its governance functions.

[7] [30] In years to come, North Korea is expected to experience greater migration, government corruption and even the erosion of the Juche ideology itself as a result of climate change.

[7] In his 2021 report to the 8th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, President Kim noted progress in "establishing a national system for disaster prevention and crisis management", displaying a commitment to improving future resilience to climate change and environmental degradation.