Free standard shipping on all orders

Pursuing Sustainable Urban Development in North Korea book cover

1st Edition

Pursuing Sustainable Urban Development in North Korea

Edited By Pavel P. Em Copyright 2025
    274 Pages 18 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This volume employs an urban lens to provide a critical analysis of the North Korean style of sustainable urban development in the face of severe sanctions and a scarcity of vital resources.

    With a focus on five major areas—population, economics, architecture, urban planning, and culture—the authors examine the preconditions that led to the emergence of ideas related to urban sustainability, assess and reassess the trends in sustainable development brought about by market forces, and recommend paths for their further intensification. Since this work covers a variety of topics, ranging from geomancy and social control to economic issues and green architecture (both locally and in comparison with European post-socialist cities and South Korea), it will point to lessons that other countries could learn from.

    This book will be a valuable reference for scholars, researchers, students, and the general public who have a regional interest in North Korea, Korean unification, and East Asia as a whole; and/or a topical interest in urban studies, urban sustainability, and post-socialist urban transformation.

    Introduction

    P. Em Pavel

    Part I: Society and Culture Under Control

    1.        The People's Group as a Mechanism of Urban Maintenance, Corvée Labor, and Surveillance

    Andrei Lankov 

    2.        The Red, Big Family

    Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

    3.        North Korean God(s)

    Roman Husarski

    4.        Life Songs and Lifelong Expertise

    Peter Moody

    Part II: Toward Economic Sustainability

    5.        Common Pool Resource Management and Problems of Sustainable Urban Development in North Korea

    Peter Ward

    6.        Tourism Development and the Quest for Sustainable Urban Development in North Korea

    Dean J. Ouellette

    7.        Enjoy Socialist Paradise

    Manon Prud'homme

    8.        Public Eating Establishments as a Factor of Sustainable Urban Development in North Korean Cities

    Maria Osetrova

    Part III: Environmental Issues and Environmental Politics

    9.        North Korean Environmental Policy in the Middle of Crisis

    Hyun Jong Noh

    10.    Are There Signs of Unsustainability in the Seemingly Sustainable City?: Finding Instances of (Under-) Privileged Urban Nature in Pyongyang

    Jin-Tae Hwang

    11.   Sustainable Water Management in North Korean Cities

    Robert Winstanley-Chesters

    Part IV: Urban Planning and Urban Architecture

    12.   Back to Basics: Does Geomancy Still Influence Urban Sustainability in North Korea?

    Nataliya A. Chesnokova

    13.   The Urban Planning of Pyongyang: Unintended Support for Sustainable Development?

    P. Pavel

    14.   Recent Transformations of Pyongyang Sallimjip

    Dongwoo Yim

    15.   Architectural Styles for Urban Sustainability: North Korean Architecture and Its Eurasian Influences

    Jelena Prokopljević

    16.   Is There Green Architecture in Pyongyang?: The Case of Ryŏmyŏng Street

    P. Em Pavel

    Part V: Imaginings of North Korean Cities in South Korea

    17.   Comparing Images of Pyongyang's New Urban Development in North and South Korean Newspapers: Are There Any References to Sustainability?

    Alexey Nosov

    18.   Infrastructure, Future, and Speculative Land Ownership in the South Korean Demilitarized Zone

    Jonathan Yainishet

    Biography

    Pavel P. Em is Research Associate at the Center for Korean Studies, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris. His work primarily concerns urban development in North Korea.

    Add to Cart