• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2011

While high-definition precipitation maps with a 270 m spatial resolution are available for South Korea, there is little information on geospatial availability of precipitation water for the famine - plagued North Korea. The restricted data access and sparse observations prohibit application of the widely used PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model) to North Korea for fine-resolution mapping of precipitation. A hybrid method which complements the PRISM grid with a sub-grid scale elevation function is suggested to estimate precipitation for remote areas with little data such as North Korea. The fine scale elevation - precipitation regressions for four sloping aspects were derived from 546 observation points in South Korea. A 'virtual' elevation surface at a 270 m grid spacing was generated by inverse distance weighed averaging of the station elevations of 78 KMA (Korea Meteorological Administration) synoptic stations. A 'real' elevation surface made up from both 78 synoptic and 468 automated weather stations (AWS) was also generated and subtracted from the virtual surface to get elevation difference at each point. The same procedure was done for monthly precipitation to get the precipitation difference at each point. A regression analysis was applied to derive the aspect - specific coefficient of precipitation change with a unit increase in elevation. The elevation difference between 'virtual' and 'real' surface was calculated for each 270m grid points across North Korea and the regression coefficients were applied to obtain the precipitation corrections for the PRISM grid. The correction terms are now added to the PRISM generated low resolution (~2.4 km) precipitation map to produce the 270 m high resolution map compatible with those available for South Korea. According to the final product, the spatial average precipitation for entire territory of North Korea is 1,196 mm for a climatological normal year (1971-2000) with standard deviation of 298 mm.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.1-14
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• 2019

North Korea has frequently suffered from extreme agricultural crop droughts, which have led to food shortages, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The increasing frequency of extreme droughts, due to global warming and climate change, has increased the importance of enhancing the national capacity for drought management. Historically, a meteorological drought index based on data collected from weather stations has been widely used. But it has limitations in terms of the distribution of weather stations and the spatial pattern of drought impacts. Satellite-based data can be obtained with the same accuracy and at regular intervals, and is useful for long-term change analysis and environmental monitoring and wide area access in time and space. The Evaporative Stress Index (ESI), a satellite-based drought index using the ratio of potential and actual evaporation, is being used to detect drought response as a index of the droughts occurring rapidly over short periods of time. It is more accurate and provides faster analysis of drought conditions compared to the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). In this study, we analyze drought events during 2015-2017 in North Korea using the ESI satellite-based drought index to determine drought response by comparing with it with the SPI and SPEI drought indices.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.79-97
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of music for alleviating PTSD symptoms among North Korean resettlers. Out of 80 initial responses from North Korean resettlers living in Seoul metropolitan area, 78 surveys were analyzed. The questionnaire focused on traumatic events encountered, PTSD symptoms experienced, and the use of music in relation to the symptoms. The analysis revealed that all participants had been exposed to traumatic events either directly or indirectly, and 32% of the responders have experienced at least one of the PTSD symptoms in the last one month. Most of the participants perceived music to be necessary in everyday life as well as for managing PTSD related symptoms. On the other hand, only 38% actually use music in everyday life whereas 75% use music for managing PTSD symptoms. They mainly listen to music but also engage in singing, utilize music from both North and South Korea, and they perceive the most important reason for using music to be for emotional comfort and transition. The analysis provides additional information that are valuable for the therapeutic use of music for North Korean resettlers living with PTSD symptoms.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.113-126
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• 2021

This study was conducted to analyze the forest status and deforestation area changes of the DMZ region in North Korea based on satellite images. Using growing and non-growing season's RapidEye satellite images, land cover of the North Korean DMZ was classified into stocking land(conifer, deciduous, mixed), deforested land(unstocked mountain, cultivated mountain, bare mountain), and non-forest areas. Deforestation rates in the Yeonan-baecheon, Beopdong-Pyeonggang, Heoyang-Geumgang and Tongcheon-Goseong district were calculated as 14.24%, 16.75%, 5.98%, and 16.63% respectively. Forest fire and land use change of forest were considered as the main causes of deforestation of DMZ. Changes in deforestation area were analyzed through Google Earth images. As a results, it was shown that the area of deforestation was on a decreasing trend. This study can be used as basic data for establishing inter-Korean border region's forest cooperation strategies by providing forest spatial information on the North Korea's DMZ.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2017

As a preliminary study of enter or leaving traffic patterns of the Korea main port, port Management Information System (Port-MIS) data was used to check the volume of vessels entering and leaving the port of Busan, and three consecutive days from each seasons were selected for study. Selected 12-day General Information Center on Maritime Safety & Security (GICOMS) data was also used to analyze the traffic pattern in the main traffic lane of Busan port for dangerous goods carrier. Also, the distance between dangerous goods carriers and Oryukdo breakwater of east breakwater in the main traffic lane was analyzed. Collision probability was estimated using the cumulative probability distribution function of the normal distribution for the maritime traffic safety audit scheme based on the assumption that a ship's trajectory has a normal distribution for a section of the route. However, in case of entry or leaving thorough the Oryukdo breakwater and entry thorough the east breakwater, ship's sailing trajectories were revealed not to follow a normal distribution via regularity testing using a KS-test and SW-test. Especially in the north port, the tendency of the right side of the ship to pass was remarkable. It is desirable to develop a traffic model suitable for the characteristics of the port rather than to apply general traffic theories, and to apply this model to a maritime traffic safety diagnosis, so further research is needed.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2016

Eleven Tropical Cyclone (TC) intensity guidance models in the western North Pacific have been validated over 2008~2014 based on various analysis methods according to the lead time of forecast, year, month, intensity, rapid intensity change, track, and geographical area with an additional focus on TCs that influenced the Korean peninsula. From the evaluation using mean absolute error and correlation coefficients for maximum wind speed forecasts up to 72 h, we found that the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model (HWRF) outperforms all others overall although the Global Forecast System (GFS), the Typhoon Ensemble Prediction System of Japan Meteorological Agency (TEPS), and the Korean version of Weather and Weather Research and Forecasting model (KWRF) also shows a good performance in some lead times of forecast. In particular, HWRF shows the highest performance in predicting the intensity of strong TCs above Category 3, which may be attributed to its highest spatial resolution (~3 km). The Navy Operational Global Prediction Model (NOGAPS) and GFS were the most improved model during 2008~2014. For initial intensity error, two Japanese models, Japan Meteorological Agency Global Spectral Model (JGSM) and TEPS, had the smallest error. In track forecast, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and recent GFS model outperformed others. The present results has significant implications for providing basic information for operational forecasters as well as developing ensemble or consensus prediction systems.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.539-550
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• 2009

This study found that tropical cyclones (TCs) formed for fall in 2007 over the western North Pacific were distributed in high-latitudes comparing to 56-year (1951-2006) climatological mean. The frequency and latitude of TC genesis became higher than 56-year climatological mean from September onward in 2007 and all the TCs that formed to the north of 20$^{\circ}$N was also distributed after September in 2007. These characteristics of TC genesis for fall in 2007 could be confirmed through analyzing various variables, such as a large-scale atmospheric circulation, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), vertical zonal wind shear, and sea surface temperature (SST). On the other hand, a frequency of the TC that occurred to the north of 200N showed a clear interdecadal variation and its decreasing trend was distinctive in recent years. Its intensity was also weaker that TCs that did to the south of 20$^{\circ}$N. However, a latitude of TC genesis showed an increasing trend until recent years, whose variation was consistent with trend that through a SST analysis, warm SST went north in recent years.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.43-53
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• 2011

It is well known some Foreign aircraft used to fly INCHEON FIR(Flight Information Region), especially the island of IEODO without a flight plan, even though foreign aircraft is subject to submitting a flight plan to Flight Information Center(FIC) before its flight. IEODO is a sunken rock 4.6m beneath the sea level, 149km away from Marado. Facing the Yangtze river's sea entrance horizontally and military zones of Korea and China vertically, IEODO is a very important place for national security of North East Asia because it is located at the boundary between China East Sea and Yellow Sea of South Korea. Moreover, JDZ(the 7th mine lot) is just 77NM from IEODO, which possesses natural gas eight times bigger than the gulf region and oil 4.5 times bigger than that of the U.S. In addition, INCHEON FIR, managed by MLTM(Air Traffic Control Center) and Japanese Self-Defense Force's JADIZ(Japanese Air Defense Identification Zone) are overlapping on IEODO whose air space is very complex. This paper focuses on air space, FIR, ADIZ(Air Defense Identification Zone) and related airspace system and suggests strategic implications of how to prevent foreign aircraft from invading INCHEON FIR without permission and of how to utilize the airspace efficiently.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.375-387
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• 2015

A Selected Multi-model CONsensus (SMCON) technique was developed and verified for the tropical cyclone track forecast in the western North Pacific. The SMCON forecasts were produced by averaging numerical model forecasts showing low 70% latest 6 h prediction errors among 21 models. In the homogeneous comparison for 54 tropical cyclones in 2013 and 2014, the SMCON improvement rate was higher than the other forecasts such as the Non-Selected Multi-model CONsensus (NSMCON) and other numerical models (i.e., GDAPS, GEPS, GFS, HWRF, ECMWF, ECMWF_H, ECMWF_EPS, JGSM, TEPS). However, the SMCON showed lower or similar improvement rate than a few forecasts including ECMWF_EPS forecasts at 96 h in 2013 and at 72 h in 2014 and the TEPS forecast at 120 h in 2013. Mean track errors of the SMCON for two year were smaller than the NSMCON and these differences were 0.4, 1.2, 5.9, 12.9, 8.2 km at 24-, 48-, 72-, 96-, 120-h respectively. The SMCON error distributions showed smaller central tendency than the NSMCON's except 72-, 96-h forecasts in 2013. Similarly, the density for smaller track errors of the SMCON was higher than the NSMCON's except at 72-, 96-h forecast in 2013 in the kernel density estimation analysis. In addition, the NSMCON has lager range of errors above the third quantile and larger standard deviation than the SMCON's at 72-, 96-h forecasts in 2013. Also, the SMCON showed smaller bias than ECMWF_H for the cross track bias. Thus, we concluded that the SMCON could provide more reliable information on the tropical cyclone track forecast by reflecting the real-time performance of the numerical models.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.252-258
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• 2021

Given the cyclicality, seasonality, and capital-intensiveness, the development of the shipping industry has long been contingent on corporate financing activities. As such, there have been a growing number of cities in East Asia pursuing a global maritime financial center in order to support their domestic shipping industry. However, it is widely accepted that financial services relevant to shipping in East Asia are quite under-developed compared to those of other leading maritime financial centers in Europe and North America. In this regard, this paper aimed to construct an evaluation index of maritime financial centers in terms of financial ecological environment for the purpose of highlighting the current status of development and suggesting future directions. Furthermore, this paper examined the development of shipping finance in Qingdao as a numerical example using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and compared results with those of Shanghai.