The relationship between South Korea and North Korea has been, simply put, rocky, and is now one of the most serious problems in the world, some speculating that the rising tensions between the two and the surrounding countries may indeed lead to WWIII. That being said, South Korea is looking for ways to pacify the situation, and one of the strategy was to put environmental concerns to this dangerous equation.

 Green Détente is a strategy of placing environmental issues as a common goal. As this certain issue is not prone to strike political or military flames, the strategy could be used to preserve and develop the demilitarized zone between the Korea?s borders, DMZ. The immediate goal is to heal the devastated forest area in North Korea. According to the risk managing company maplecroft, the forest degradation index in North Korea is ranked third, following Nigeria and Indonesia. Compared with South Korea, which the forest covers 63% of the land, North Korea is only 47.1%. This is due to illegal logging and terraced farming. Since the poverty rate is rising in North Korea, the vicious cycle is unending.

 What exactly, is South Korea planning to do? The role model for this program, is South Korea, for a start. The situation in North Korea is similar to that of South Korea in 1970s, and the efforts of that time can be applied to the situation today. For example, April 6^th is a tree-planting day, a legal holiday, when the citizens are half forced to plant trees. Also, a NGO called Green Asia Organization (GAO) is to be in effect to make Asian countries of North Korea, Mongol, and China green again.

 The important factor is, will North Korea be cooperative to this program? Seeing the efforts of a united team that played during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, we can hope.