Kim Jong-un will turn all the mountains into golden forests, foreign minister tells climate summit in Paris

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has launched a war on deforestation, the country’s foreign minister said at the Paris climate talks, pledging to “actively engage” in global environment efforts.

The reclusive country is among the 195 nations gathered in the French capital to craft a deal aimed at curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that are pushing climate change.

Kim “has declared war on deforestation and has put forward a massive project to turn all the mountains of the country into mountains of gold, thickly wooded with trees,” Ri Su-yong told delegates.

Ri said the country would complete a large-scale tree-planting initiative over the next decade, which will help the “national effort to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions”.

He said North Korea had the “aim of reducing the country’s total amount of greenhouse gas emissions by 37.4% compared with the levels of the 1990s.

North Korean carbon emissions plummeted in the 1990s as its economy collapsed, but have crept slowly back up in recent years.

The government “will continue to faithfully discharge its responsibilities as a party to UNFCCC and actively engage itself in international efforts to protect the global environment,” said Ri.

The UNFCCC is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, established 1992 as the main international arena for addressing global warming and its impacts.