China agrees to joint study of pollution on Korean Peninsula

China for the first time has acknowledged that it is the origin of pollutants affecting the Korean Peninsula`s atmosphere and agreed to joint research with Korea on pollution prevention. Beijing has also agreed to share information on pollutants in China with Korea.

Beijing had displayed a lukewarm attitude toward pollutants, including yellow dust storms, that affect Korea’s atmosphere, calling them "inevitable natural phenomena."

The Korean Environment Ministry said Sunday that Environment Minister Yoo Young-sook and her Chinese counterpart Zhou Shengxian reached the agreement at bilateral talks in Beijing last week. In the meeting, the Korean government also spoke of the haze caused by fireworks in China over the Chinese New Year’s holidays that spreads to Korea and pollutes its atmosphere.

The haze is formed by small solid particles in the atmosphere in low humidity. It looks similar to fog, which is formed by tiny drops of water in the air getting condensed. Unlike fog, however, haze contains large amounts of harmful materials, as exhaust gases and car emissions mix with vapor.

A recent study suggests that haze is more harmful to the human body than yellow dust. According to an Environment Ministry recent report, an analysis of yellow dust, haze and the atmospheric quality of Gosan-ri on Jeju Island from October 2009 to June 2010 showed the atmospheric concentration of organic carbon in haze was 5.70 μg (1 μg is one-millionth of a gram) per cubic meter, far higher than that of yellow dust at 3.04 μg per cubic meter.

The ministry plans to introduce a haze warning system early next year.