식량주권의 관점에서 본 북한의 유기농업과 남북 농업교류협력의 성찰

Abstract

This study examines the background and context of organic farming which has been often mentioned in the literature published in North Korea for the last few years. In comparison with the experience of organic farming in Cuba, Cuba and North Korea have in common with paying attention to organic farming when there is a lack of imported farming materials and foreign isolation. On the other hand, unlike Cuba, North Korea has not solved the food problem because they are likely to introduce organic farming only in terms of technical aspects while maintaining collective agriculture. However, in the North Korean society, it should not be overlooked that organic farming based on family farming in both rural and urban areas voluntarily has been practiced in order to overcome the lack of food for several decades. The discourse on organic farming has evolved the enactment of organic industry law and ecological conservation from a means for increasing production. Also, North Korean regime’s early interests in organic farming concentrated on developing the organic fertilizers to substitute insufficient chemical fertilizers on its own. Since the 2000s, however, North Korea has broadened its interests into organic farming technology of the outside world. Agricultural cooperation between the North and South tends to be determined in accordance with the requirements of the agricultural policy of the North and limited to transfer of resources and farming technology of custom farming of the South based on chemistrization and mechanization. Inter-Korean agricultural cooperation needs to ensure food sovereignty over the entire Korean Peninsula while seeking alternative joint agricultural model that is able to recover the health of agriculture and ecology. Therefore, organic farming that North Korean regime has been interested in will become an important opportunity for inter-Korean agricultural cooperation.