The Ministry of Environment plans increasing cooperation with neighboring countries to better cope with dust storms that wreak havoc here every spring.

The Ministry of Environment stated that concerted efforts among Northeast Asian countries, including Korea, China, Japan and Mongolia, are crucial to minimizing damage from the worsening unpleasant but natural phenomenon.

Originating from Inner Mongolia and the Gobi Desert in central China, yellow dust is carried to Korea by prevailing easterly winds in April and May as the Siberian lands thaw, reducing visibility and filling the country''s sky with a thick blanket of dust.

The phenomenon has worsened as China''s rapid economic expansion over the past three decades has seen increased deforestation and degeneration of other greenbelt areas in favor of various industrial and agricultural developments.

The storms have become an environmental and health concern in affected countries with the dust, combined with pollutants from industrial cities in eastern China, being blamed for increased rates of respiratory and skin ailments.

The ministry has been working with Chinese officials over the years to set up a more coordinated and systematic scheme to combat the yellow dust and mitigate its negative effects.

Last year, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to establish six monitoring stations in central China in the near future to better observe and predict the movement of yellow dust.

Korea has offered to help finance construction costs. In return, China would provide real-time data on dust levels and wind movements essential for predicting when dust storms could hit Korea and how strong they might be.

But China has not yet made a formal response to the proposal, citing a time-consuming internal coordination process involving its many different government offices.

MOE plans to build monitoring stations in China and possibly in Mongolia to gather accurate information on yellow dust.

Regarding the proposal, MOE expects to hear from Chinese officials any time soon because dust storms have become a big headache not only for Korea, but also for China. So the Chinese government is eager to implement every possible measure aimed at minimizing the damage.

Since 2000, MOE has spent $5 million on reforestation efforts in inner China and Mongolia, planting some 20 million trees to prevent the desertification from spreading further, and minimize the effects of the shifting dust.

Additionally, MOE plans to establish a network of monitoring stations for yellow dust throughout Northeast Asia to standardize data collection, information sharing and early warning capacity.

In Spring 2006, MOE agreed with the Chinese, Japanese and Mongolian officials to invest some $3.4 million to set up monitoring centers in each country by the end of next year to more effectively contain the intensifying yellow dust storms.

International communities are also increasingly aware of the growing problem arising from yellow dust.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has said it would assist affected countries in monitoring and reducing dust levels through information sharing and outside expertise.

It has been urging the countries to make concerted efforts to solve atmospheric environmental issues that threaten public health and damage the industrial and agricultural infrastructure as the dust problem worsens.

Meanwhile, the government has begun making efforts to better deal with yellow dust by upgrading weather forecasting capabilities and minimizing the dust''s devastating effect on buildings, crops and public health.

To improve the country''s early warning system, the government plans on installing a long-range yellow dust detection center on Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea by the end of this year.

The state-of-the-art facility will give the country a clearer picture of yellow dust cloud movements and help provide more comprehensive warnings to local industries and the public.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) plans to increase the number of monitoring stations from the current 16 to 22 by 2008 to help better track yellow dust storms. It has also started providing up-to-date yellow dust warnings to the public via cell phone messages.

Early last week, Lee Man-gi, a KMA chief, made a formal apology for mistakes in predicting the exact course of the season''s worst yellow dust storm since 2002 that hit the Korean Peninsula on April 8, frustrating many.

The weather agency had previously forecast the country would come under the influence of only minimal yellow dust, but it suddenly issued a series of dust storm warnings as the storm became worse than expected.

The warnings are issued when the particle matter density exceeds 500 micrograms per cubic meter of air, and a dust storm alert is issued at over 1,000 micrograms.

The government also plans developing techniques aimed at countering the dust storms. The National Emergency Management Agency, affiliated with the Ministry of Science and Technology, has begun researching anti-yellow dust storm technologies.

“The agency recently categorized the dust storms as a natural disaster and presented a report on how to counter it,” a KMA official said.

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The agency would also focus on studying the negative consequences of the accumulated dust on buildings, precision machinery and cultural heritage.

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