• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2011

Reliable information on the surface solar radiation is indispensable for rebuilding food production system in the famine plagued North Korea. However, transfer of the related modeling technology of South Korea is not possible simply because raw data such as solar radiation or sunshine duration are not available. The objective of this study is restoring solar radiation data at 27 synoptic stations in North Korea by using satellite remote sensing data. We derived relationships between MODIS radiation estimates and the observed solar radiation at 18 locations in South Korea. The relationships were used to adjust the MODIS based radiation data and to restore solar radiation data at those pixels corresponding to the 27 North Korean synoptic stations. Inverse distance weighted averaging of the restored solar radiation data resulted in gridded surfaces of monthly solar radiation for 4 decadal periods (1983-1990, 1991-2000 and 2001-2010), respectively. For a direct application of these products, we produced solar irradiance estimates for each sub-grid cell with a 30 m spacing based on a sun-slope geometry. These products are expected to assist planning of the North Korean agriculture and, if combined with the already prepared South Korean data, can be used for climate change impact assessment across the whole Peninsula.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.35
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• pp.284-303
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• 2002

The purpose of this research paper is to examine, from an ethnological viewpoint, the traditional practice of using sacrificial game and domestic livestock as is often seen at communal rites in Korea. This paper also examine how the more convenient use of livestock sacrifice developed from that in which wild game were once offered, and how this change in the type of animals used affected the significance of the sacrifice. It also looks at how the use of animal sacrifice for ceremonies eventually influenced the practice of meat consumption on the part of the participants in their daily life, and how it contributed to the eventual establishment and development of livestock breeding for the purpose of meat consumption. The practice of catching wild game in the mountains for sacrificial purposes eventually gave way to the use of pasturage cattle, but it should be understood that these domesticated livestock were raised primarily for ceremonial rather than meat consumption purpose. When used for sacrifice, these cattle were not castrated, as is normally done when they are slaughtered for meat consumption, but it should not be assumed that this was done for purposes of simplification. In addition, not only rice farmers but also when enterpreneurs set up a new enterprise, animal sacrifice was viewed not only as a form of on-site purification of evil, but also served the dual purpose of enhancing their business through the traditional custom of serving meat to those invited guests in attendance. In the large-scale village communal rite of Hwaghae Province located in the northwestern part of Korea, animal sacrifice was carried out in the ritual for the Mountain God in a highly dramatic style, and suggests that it originated with the agrarian rites of the "fire-field" farmers of East Asia, which were utilized to foretell whether the coming year would be one of abundance or famine, and to the royal ceremony held on the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the lunar calendar, as well as that held for the God of the Mountains and Streams. The dramatic-style hunting rite, included in the large-scale communal ritual of Hwanghae Province mentioned previously, as well as in the Ritual of the Cow from Pyungsan, also located in Hwanghae Province, in which wild game were used as sacrifice, is significant in that it points up the changes that have occurred in ceremonial animal sacrifice. However, more research on ritualistic animal sacrifice is still called for in rites for good farming, fishing, and the variety of others that are held throughout Korea.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.1-23
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• 2022

Access to knowledge and information is a universal human right. However, even after the Marrakesh Treaty was adopted on June 27, 2013, only 1-7% of standard printed materials are accessible to people with reading disabilities, including the visually impaired, and library services are very weak. As a result, the book famine of people with reading disabilities continues. This study, focusing on such severe access gaps and inequalities, analyzes Learning Ally and Bookshare in the US, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK, Bibliothèque Numérique Francophone Accessible (BNFA) in France, and SAPIE in Japan, which are considered private organizations leading library services for the disabled in major developed countries. And based on the derived implications and the Marrakesh Treaty, a strategic plan was proposed to strengthen the services of the disabled in domestic libraries. It is urgent to enact the 'Act to Resolve Reading Barriers', amend the provisions related to the Copyright Act that restrict library services, strengthen the organizational capacity of the National Library for the Disabled, raise the service index for the disabled in library evaluation, and establish a library cooperation system centered on regional representative libraries and expand services, etc.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.68
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• pp.11-40
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• 2021

The coronavirus pandemic has brought about significant negative changes in our society to the point where it has to be divided into 'Before Corona'(BC) and 'After Corona'(AC). Typical examples include economic difficulties and medical inequality of some social excluded groups as well as individuals who die alone because they are alienated from social networks, and hate and violent discrimination against Asian immigrants, which are rapidly increasing in Western countries in these days. In addition, the pandemic is at a global level, ranging from the vaccine gap between the first and third worlds, triggered by competition for securing vaccines between countries that put their own interests first, the income gap due to changes in the economic environment and financial market, and the bankruptcy of individuals and corporations. In 'all'(pan) and 'people'(demos) became a limit situation that could not be avoided. There is also the opinion that the world could witness the worst catastrophe if the pandemic spreads to poor countries at risk of increasing violence, poverty and famine. The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in society caused by the Coronavirus pandemic and to suggest the direction of Christian education accordingly. To this end, this paper analyzes the medical, economic, and psychological crises that society faces in the post-corona era. Next, we look at the changes in Christian theology, mission, and worship, which are strongly required for fundamental changes in the context of the pandemic. Based on the above discussion, we propose a new direction for Christian education necessary in the post-corona era.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.85-98
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• 2010

The natural hazards such as droughts, floods and frost injuries, and their relationships with the social unrest phenomena such as years of famine, smallpox and revolutions during the Medieval times(AD 936~1391) in Korea are compared and analyzed based on the History of Goryeo containing astronomical weather and climate events during the Goryeo Dynasty. Among the natural hazards during the Goryeo Dynasty, the droughts with a period of 4~5 years on average are recorded most frequently. By time series analysis, the most frequency of droughts can be found in AD 286~335, AD 786~835 and AD 1261~1320 during the Ancient and Medieval times. It is suggested that three cycles of the droughts during approximately 1,500 years of the Ancient and Medieval times are recognized and they had happened with the time intervals of approximately 500 years. The frequency of droughts increased in the late Goryeo Dynasty is consistent with those of the social chaos factors such as years of famines, smallpox and revolutions. These records suggest that the natural hazard such as years of famines was one of the most important factors influencing on the collapse of the Goryeo Dynasty, agrarian country.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.137-152
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• 2000

North Korean fugitives is one of various nominations referring to the North Koreans who have secretly crossed the territorial border of their country. It is a new terminology that huts gained wider usage in our society as we entered the 1990s. North Koreans list various motives for escaping their county, such as food shortage and disillusionment of belief in the system. Most of the forced repatriation of North Korean escapees takes place in China. The purpose of this study examines the family knife of female fugitives from North Korea in order to provide pertinent alterntives which are needed to secure basic human right of the female fugitives and enable them to keep stability of their family lives and to adapt themselves into new socio-cultural circumstances in China. For this, the preliminary survey performed to examine the demographic characteristics on the female fugitives; to find out the incentives and channels of their escape out of North Korea; to investigate what types of family life and family relationship they manage in China; to grasp their problems and need of family life in adaptation into Chinese society. The specific questions for grasping the general characteristics of the female fugitives are composed of age, education level residential district in North Korea. In order to find out main causes and influential factors of their escape from North Korea, the following questions are included: what the most important incentives and motives are; the frequency of escape; and whether they discuss their escape with their family or not. The questions to find out their present actual life situations in China are about difficult things to adjust in China, family life, relationship with husband, and their conversational diction, the degree of their mastering the chinese language, the degree of their adaptation to chinese way of living, and so forth, which reveal to what extent they are adapted themselves to new cultural situation in China. This study collected the data through face-to-face personal interview from July to October, 1999 Yenben province along the China-North Korea border. Data from 202 female fugitives were used in final analysis. This study uses the SAS PC program for windows, Ver, 6.12 to analyze the data such as the distribution of frequency, percentage, mean and so on. The results from this analysis are follows; the most principal motive of North Korean women's escape to china is to eat to live because of famine. Concerning the year when the fugitives escape from North Korea, all of the interviewees haute escaped since 1990. After escape their continual contact with their family in North Korea, 81.7% of the respondent have not been in touch with their family. The main reasons for their not contacting with their family in North Korea are that it is not helpful although they contacts with their family. Female fugitives from North Korea have difficulties in life. They have rather stable relationship to their husband, but they have experienced difficulties in other aspects of family life. Their main difficulties are largely from their relationships to husbands'family members, and from the problems relate to their family in North Korea, and their children. Based on this study, further research has to present supportive policies that help North Korean female escapees live without being deprived and protect their human rights. And the development of practical program to help their efficient social adaptation has to be continued without stop together.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.601-612
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• 2003

In Korean history, vegetables were the major side dishes of meals and originally korean diets were based on vegetables. But recently people prefer meat dishes rather than vegetables and traditional vegetable cooking seems to be disappeared. So it is needed to be positioning the importance of vegetables in food culture of Korean. In present study, history of vegetable eating was reviewed and recent consumption pattern were analyzed. 1. Since the era of the three Kingdom's and Koryo dynasty, the kinds of vegetables varied and at Chosun Dynasty people used similar kinds of vegetables as nowadays except a few things. A Garlic and mug wort had been used from the age of tribes to present and an egg, apple, cucumber, lettuce from the three Kingdom and a bamboo sprout, a taro, a burdock, a radish, a turnip, a stone-leek, a scallion, a Chinese cabbage, a marsh mallow, a spinach and a crown daisy from Koryo Dynasty and a pepper, a pumpkin, a tomato, a cabbage, a salary, a kale, a turnip and a beet from Chosun Dynasty to present. A guard, a water shield plant, a yam and wild plants would have been used before but they would not use any more. 2. Current vegetable consumptions of Korean is 232.2kg/person/yr and comparing with world mean consumption(101.9kg), Koreans still eat the largest amount of vegetables than any other countries and among Asian countries, Koreans consume more vegetables than China(203.5kg) and Japanese people(111.6kg) do. 3.The most frequently consumed vegetables were vegetables for seasonings such as a garlic or stone-leek and for kimchi such as a Chinese cabbage, radish, and carrot. But from data of Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey(2001), kinds of vegetables which people had were only 72 items showing that the kinds of vegetables were limited. 4. A lot of wild plants that would have been used for famine relief are now disappeared and on the other hand, it is increasing of some new and foreign vegetables and herbs. Cooking methods and intake pattern of vegetables are changed and varied so a traditional cooking method such as namuel is less preferred than before. But vegetable wrapping and green vegetable juice, eating uncooked vegetables(sang-sik) are very popular.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.449-464
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• 2019

Purpose: North Koreans could be at higher risk for their bone health because of previous periods of severe famine and the continuing low availability of food. This study determined the bone mineral density (BMD) status and its relationship with dietary behaviors and nutrient intake of North Korean refugees (NKR) in South Korea (SK). Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed 110 female NKR from a NORNS cohort of a non-probability sample of adult NKR in Seoul. BMD examined by DEXA was used to divide participants into the normal group (NG) and the non-normal group (NNG) according to the WHO guideline. A self-administered questionnaire included questions on age, the socioeconomic situation in North Korea (NK) and SK, the food security in NK and SK, and the health behaviors, dietary behaviors, and food frequency questionnaire administered in SK. A one-day 24-hr recall was conducted and the results were analyzed by using CanPro. SPSS was used to analyze whether BMD and related dietary behaviors and nutrient intakes differed according to the groups. Results: NG (62.7%) was significantly younger and had a lower abdominal obesity score than NNG (p < 0.001). While 14.5% of NG reported experiencing menopause, all of NNG reported experiencing menopause. The NG more frequently consumed the dairy group of foods (9.6 times a week) than did the NNG (4.8 times a week) after the statistics were adjusted for age (p < 0.007). The NG consumed significantly more animal protein and animal calcium than did the NNG (p = 0.01, p = 0.009, respectively). Calcium intake was low with 49.3% of NG, and 78.0% of the NNG reported consuming calcium lower than the estimated average requirement. Only calcium showed an index of nutrient quality lower than one in both groups. Conclusion: These results showed that NKR women and possibly all North Korean women are at high risk for bone health and they consumed low levels of bone-related nutrients, and this should be considered for the nutrition policy for NKR and North Korea.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.50
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• pp.37-74
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• 2016

Song Joon Kil(宋浚吉, 1606-1672) intended to establish the subjectivity of people as a "Great Justice". He declared that at that time "Great Justice" was meant to respect 'Ming(明)' and reject 'Ching'(淸). He understood 'Ching' as a country which destroyed the human community and reasoned that if we put Ching's uncivilized behavior out of our mind in favor of the pursuit of present existence and merits, a temporary peace may be got but eternal peace and stability would not be achieved. 'Ming' doesn't refer only to the name of a country, but a country with the capacity to perform 'humanity and justice' with a human culture. On the other hand, he considered 'Ching' to signify the uncivilised country that destroyed or repressed the humanity and peaceful order of the world. He thought the international order can only be maintained under the organization respectful and protective of humanity. He believed a country should act to unify the whole world guaranteeing life and stability. He possessed this cultivated spirit which acted to protect the civilised world from the perils of an uncivilised world. But because of the great famine for a lot of years and the international state(Ming was regressing, and Ching was continuing to make rapid strides) was timely unsuitable to revenge and to wash the shame off. So Song propeled to stabilize the government and to strengthen the national ethics. Song focused on administering the domestic affairs. To him a high priority was a internal affairs, and a low priority was a external affairs[military aggression]. Song considered 'providing for the welfare of the people'(安民) before 'pushing ahead with military aggression'(外攘). And a high priority was 'restoring the people'(養民), a low priority was 'the military affairs'(治兵). Song regarded 'domestic affairs'(內治) as a fundamental affairs. He putted 'to nurse people'(養民) and 'to straighten King's mind'(格君心) first, than 'to buildup military'. His foreign policy was 'respecting Ming' and 'rejecting Ching'. Song was bothered about defining Chosun dynasty's moral obligations to the southern Ming government(1644~46) at Nanjing at that time.