ENVIRONMENT

Source:  North Korea's national coordinating council for the environment and the UN's Development and Environment Programs.

Forests cover 74% of North Korea, but almost all are on steep slopes. In the last decade the forests have declined in extent and quality. The report says this is because of timber production, a doubling of firewood consumption, wild fires, insect attacks associated with drought, and conversion of forest to farmland.

Water demand is rising "with economic development and the improvement in standards of living", and calls for urgent investment in domestic sewage and industrial water treatment. Large quantities of untreated wastewater and sewage are discharged into rivers, and says some diseases related to water use "are surging".

Air quality "is deteriorating, especially in urban and industrial areas". Energy consumption is expected to double over 30 years, from almost 48m tons of oil equivalent in 1990 to 96 million tons in 2020.

North Korea's use of coal is projected to increase five times from 2005 to 2020, underlining, the report says, "the urgent need for clean coal combustion and exhaust gas purification technologies, energy efficiency, and renewable energy alternatives."

On land use, "major crop yields fell by almost two thirds during the 1990s due to land degradation caused by loss of forest, droughts, floods and tidal waves, acidification due to over-use of chemicals, as well as shortages of fertilizer, farm machinery and oil.

North Korea is home to several critically endangered species, among them the Amur leopard, the Asiatic black bear and the Siberian tiger.

In a wider context, the report says: "The conflict between socio-economic progress and a path of truly sustainable development is likely to be further aggravated unless emerging issues can be settled in time."

HUMAN RIGHTS

The human rights record of North Korea is extremely difficult to fully assess due to the secretive and closed nature of the country. The North Korean government makes it very difficult for foreigners to enter the country and strictly monitors their activities when they are there. Nonetheless, we do know  that North Korea is a wide scale abuser of Human Rights. From starving its people, to imprisoning citizens who protest as well as reporters, North Korea, a one party state, allows virtually no rights to its citizens in terms of freedom, self expression or democracy. People can be put in jail for sitting on a newspaper that contains an image of Dictator Kim Jong Il.

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POLITICAL PRISONERS

North Korea operates a vast and inhumane system for political prisoners. It’s estimated there are over 200,000 of them in the country. North Koreans can end up in re-education camps for such crimes as listening to foreign radio broadcasts, secretly practicing a religion, or crossing the border to China in search of food. Inmates are subjected to forced labor and are required to memorize political tracts. They receive little food, no medical care and sometimes serve multiyear terms wearing the clothes in which they arrived at camp. Many prisoners die of abuse or malnutrition.

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POWER IT FORWARD

Do a favor, give someone a break, offer help before it's asked for. Move the world around you and it will continue to move. Paying it forward is good work, personal work. Pass it on. Tell others to do the same.

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PRESS FREEDOM

North Korea is rated the worst country in the world for press repression. All media is state owned. There is zero tolerance for dissent. North Korea’s state-run news agency reported that two American journalists who were seized in March  joutnalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years of "reform through labor." The women, arrested along the North's border with China, were researching the plight of North Korean refugees who flee to China. Their trial was closed, and their crimes -- other than the alleged illegal border crossing -- were unspecified .

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