N. Korea builds eco-farm as part of 'green growth' drive

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has built an integrated, eco-friendly farm
where fish and livestock can be raised with no fuel, state media said Tuesday, in
the country's latest pitch for "green growth."

A multi-purpose solar greenhouse, built by the Natural Energy Development and Use
Center, covers a vegetable gardening area, a livestock pen, a methane
fermentation tank and a fish farm, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
By wisely combining the elements of production, consumption and degradation, this
greenhouse achieves "high economic efficiency and is completely free of
environmental pollution," the report claimed.
By-products of vegetables are fed to pigs, and methane gas from their excrement
is used as energy to process livestock feed and keep the greenhouse warm, it
said. Liquid manure created in the process becomes the feed for fish or is used
as the extra fertilizer.
At the front of the greenhouse is a fish farm, where solar energy is saved during
daytime and emits heat at night to keep the temperature higher than 10 Celsius
degrees even in the winter, the report said.
In sync with the global fight against climate change, North Korea has shown great
interest in low-carbon, green growth. Chollima, a North Korean monthly magazine,
said in its November edition, "Now is the golden opportunity to transform the
world economy into a low-carbon economy."
North Korea joined the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement aimed at
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and enacted a domestic environmental law to
tackle the destruction of the ozone layer in 2005.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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