The need to transform from one-way to two-way natural disaster management
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The need to transform from one‑way to two‑way natural disaster management Kyoo‑Man Ha1 Received: 10 July 2018 / Accepted: 3 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Various natural disasters have caused catastrophic effects in North Korea despite the assistance received from international partners. This study aimed to comprehensively examine how the field of North Korean natural disaster management has addressed the issue of all stakeholders toward the ultimate goal of disaster management. Through qualitative content analysis, a comparison was carried out between one-way and two-way natural disaster management. Four stakeholders were used as comparative variables, namely, North Korea, major neighboring countries, international nongovernmental organizations, and the United Nations. A key finding is that the North Korean field of disaster management has to shift from one-way to two-way natural disaster management while addressing market-oriented governance, transnational disaster management, and system modernization, as well as the assigned roles of the four stakeholders. Keywords Self-sufficiency · Comprehensive emergency management · Humanitarian assistance · Transparency · North Korea
1 Introduction The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK; hereinafter, North Korea) is the most isolated country in the world. The leaders of North Korea have made all efforts to secure their regime on the basis of state control, despite the fact that the population suffers from many difficulties, including famine, pandemic, droughts, public executions, mass imprisonment, and international sanctions (Wolf Jr. and Levin 2008; He and Xu 2017). The current leader of North Korea, Kim Jung-Un, has also exerted all efforts toward the development of nuclear weapons in the country, although he recently expressed willingness to engage in partial denuclearization during the UN economic sanction. Without exception, diverse natural disasters have also impacted North Korea. Human losses from natural disasters in the nation numbered 1533 from 2007 to 2016, whereas economic damages amounted to about 312 million US dollars during the same period * Kyoo‑Man Ha [email protected] 1
Department of Emergency Management, Inje University, 197 Inje‑ro, Gimhae city 50834, Gyeongnam, Korea
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Natural Hazards
(Kim 2016). Table 1 shows the physical impacts of typhoons accompanied by floods in the region. Thus far, the social impact of such disasters has been immeasurable. The North Korean government has recently been more willing to engage the international community in its natural disaster management than ever before. The nation has also associated more frequently with foreign governments, NGOs, international organizations, and other institutions (Goe and Linton 2005; Shim 2020). In addition, international observers have been occasionally permitted to see the damage caused by natural disasters in the country, and various stakeholders have been recently involved in North Korean natural disaster management. Hence
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