Forest fires in North Korea

by Robert Koehler on April 16, 2011

According to a NASA photograph, the East Sea coast of North Korea is on fire:

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite detected several fires in North Korea on April 13, 2011. The fires are marked in red in the image. The fires stop at the country’s borders with China and South Korea, a sign that they were probably deliberately set. Fire is frequently used throughout the world to clear land for agriculture and other purposes, but rules governing the use of fire vary from country to country.

Clustered along the east coast, many of the fires are producing thick smoke, blanketing the Sea of Japan with haze. Though some of the smoke may be coming from far eastern Russia, the densest plumes extend east from the Korean peninsula.

Jesus H Christ, radiation from Japan, yellow dust from China, forest fire smoke from North Korea… what’s next?

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

1 bumfromkorea April 16, 2011 at 12:13 pm: … Do they even have resources to fight forest fires of that scale?
2 seouldout April 16, 2011 at 12:34 pm: …what’s next?

A Zerg rush.
3 Yu Bum Suk April 16, 2011 at 1:05 pm: Are those acts of sabatoge or is NK deliberately setting them for some reason?
4 CactusMcHarris April 16, 2011 at 1:19 pm: #2,

I was going to say an asteroid, but I see that’s positively 4th street. If something has ‘minion bombing’ attached to it, that’s a good thing, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_%28video_games%29
5 dokdoforever April 17, 2011 at 12:14 am: I would think, like #1, that the reason the first stop at the border may have more to do with not having the resources to put them out. What motive could you have for deliberately setting forest fires on that scale? Timber is a useful resource, why set it ablaze?
6 chiamattt April 17, 2011 at 12:33 am: Might be to create “a dangerous situation” within the country to get people to rally around “a cause”. Who knows, it might just be to clear land to grow opium.
7 Cheoto カンチョ April 17, 2011 at 8:19 am: Burning the land clears it and provides a better “view”.

After the fire, everything is black and flat. It would then be very easy to see anything moving within that area for a good mile or two.
8 R. Elgin April 17, 2011 at 10:50 am: This was happening last year in North Korea and it was worse.

Oddly enough, down south, farmers burn off their winter barley field stubble instead of taking it out, the result being smoke rising from 360-degrees around around and some of the worst air pollution in the south. It gets so bad at times that it is just like being around a forest fire. The government should really put an end to this yearly pollution too, whose practice started at the onset of the “New Village Movement”.
9 CactusMcHarris April 17, 2011 at 12:25 pm: #8,

Let’s hear it for the Saemaul Oondong in the ri! Thank you for the fond remembrance of tramping through many a village that had The Movement happening.
10 Darth Babaganoosh April 17, 2011 at 12:47 pm: Jesus H Christ, radiation from Japan, yellow dust from China, forest fire smoke from North Korea… what’s next?
Judging by my neighbourhood, sewer gases from the storm drains.
11 Darth Babaganoosh April 17, 2011 at 12:48 pm: Sperwered the blockquote
12 JG29A April 18, 2011 at 10:36 am: Jesus H Christ, radiation from Japan, yellow dust from China, forest fire smoke from North Korea… what’s next?

Taco Bell.