South Korea's government encouraged rapid industrial development in the 1970s and 1980s, and was rather late in realizing that air quality was suffering. Finally, in the 1990s, the Korean government implemented tighter controls on industrial air emissions.

Today, China (upwind from Korea) contributes at least as much sulfur oxide to South Korea's air as Korea's own industries. This means not only air problems, but acid rain and waterway damage. (Pollution from China's rapid industrialization is a concern, in fact, for all of Asia.) And in the spring, for a few uncomfortable weeks, the winds often deliver to much of Korea the yellow dust from China's deserts.

But internally, Korea's biggest air pollution source is vehicles. Large diesel buses and trucks amount to only 4% of Korea's vehicle population, but contribute 40% of the total vehicle emissions. Fifteen or 20 years ago, Korea's predominant odor was sewage. That's been greatly improved since, but now the big cities stink of diesel exhaust. In addition, a growing private vehicle population -- per capita vehicle ownership has grown an astonishing 1,600 percent since 1980 -- has brought further problems with mobile-source emissions.

To deal with this, a few years ago the government offered incentives, mostly in the form of lower fuel taxes, for operating vehicles on LP gas, which reduces emissions. Unfortunately, they then restricted the classes of vehicles which could use low-tax LP gas in order to maintain tax revenues. Automakers responded by building larger vehicles, which qualify for LP gas. These use more fuel, but the fuel is cheaper. They've become very popular with the Korean public (so now the streets are clogged with SUVs).

Whether all this weaving and dodging has helped or harmed the air is hard to say, but certainly carbon emissions have increased rapidly. And although the Korean government claims to be concerned about the country's air quality, really aggressive measures, such as electric vehicle development programs, don't seem to be much in evidence.

Korea's overall energy use doubled during the early and mid 1990s, and so did their carbon emissions. Their energy use is expected to increase 3.2 percent per year through 2020. Although 40% of their electricity now comes from nuclear sources, and they expect to build more nuclear plants, Korea is also one of the few developed Asian nations that also expect to burn more coal during this time. This suggests that without a solid commitment from the South Korean government to zero-emissions vehicle technology, energy conservation, and development of renewable sources, Korea's air is likely to get worse before it gets better.

So what does this mean to you? If you have respiratory problems, you're probably smart to avoid the biggest cities. Definitely stay away from Seoul. Ulsan is heavily industrialized and I hate to think what kind of chemicals those factories dump into the air, soil, and water. I'd look for a job in Kangwon Province - Kangwon and the city of Kangnung have Korea's cleanest air.

It may be the cleanest in Korea, but Kangnung's air is hardly pristine (see photo above). Its air quality is roughly equivalent to a typical midwestern US city of comparable size. Our friends told us that the Namdaechon River, also shown in the picture, is polluted, though I've not been able to find any specific documentation. Still, the air's not too bad, and Margaret actually had clearer sinuses there than she usually does here in the US.

Sources:

1. US Energy Information Administration
2. US Department of Energy
3. American University Mandala Project on Environment and Policy: South Korea Air Pollution