Cooperation Measures for Agricultural Infrastructure Development in North Korea

북한 농업생산기반조성 현황과 협력 방안

The objectives of this article are to identify the current status of agricultural infrastructure in North Korea and to suggest some cooperation measures among South and North Koreas and international agencies in order to develop the North Korea's agricultural infrastructure. The area of cultivated land in North Korea is 1,992 thousand ha (paddy field: 585 thousand ha: upland: 1,407 thousand ha) in 1997. Major water use facilities in North Korea are 1,900 reservoirs (included 100 big dams), 36,400 irrigation pumping stations, 1,600 drainage pumping stations, and 14'a,000 wells. In addition, there is 'two thousand Ri canal construction project' linking the rivers of Aprok, Daeryong, Daedong, Jaeryong, and Yesong. The unit of paddy land consolidation is about 1 ha which is regarded as rational for agricultural mechanization. The project of 'Darak' upland construction to create small size farmland, which has been carried out since 1976 has been unsuccessful due to the shortage of construction equipment. The area of farmland created by reclamation by 1995 is only 75 thousand ha although the potential project area is at)out 320 thousand ha along the western coast. It is due to the fact that civil engineering technologies and equipments are old and investment funds are insufficient. These are a few suggested areas of cooperation among South and North Korea and international agencies in order to improve North Korea's agricultural infrastructure : i) see land reclamation and land consolidation projects to increase paddy fields for rice production; ii) rehabilitation project in farm land areas devastated by flood; and iii) agricultural water development project which including diagnosing and rehabilitating irrigation and drainage facilities.