Korea North Environment - 2024

Environment - current issues

water pollution; inadequate supplies of potable water; waterborne disease; deforestation; soil erosion and degradation

Environment - international agreements

party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Desertification, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Law of the Sea

Climate

temperate, with rainfall concentrated in summer; long, bitter winters

Land use

agricultural land: 21.8% (2018 est.)

arable land: 19.5% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 1.9% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 0.4% (2018 est.)

forest: 46% (2018 est.)

other: 32.2% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 63.2% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 0.85% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Food insecurity

widespread lack of access:due to low food consumption levels, poor dietary diversity, and economic downturn - a large portion of the population suffers from low levels of food consumption and very poor dietary diversity; the economic constraints, particularly resulting from the global impact of the COVID‑19 pandemic, have increased the population’s vulnerability to food insecurity; the food gap is estimated at about 860,000 mt, equivalent to approximately 2-3 months of food use, if this gap is not adequately covered through commercial imports and/or food aid, households could experience a harsh lean period (2022)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 41.46 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 28.28 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 18.68 megatons (2020 est.)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 900 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 1.15 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 6.61 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

77.15 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)