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Since 1956 when the Republic of Korea joined the World Meteorological Organization(WMO), the Korea Meteorological Administration(KMA)―as the official agency in charge of the national meteorological services in Korea―has actively participated in the efforts to improve enthusiastically the meteorological technologies for the safer world, abiding by the regulations and advice of WMO. In addition, the KMA has been expanding its contribution to developing countries, particularly, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States(SIDS), sharing knowledge and know-how with them.
With increased national potential and economic power, the KMA has gradually come to play a role as a contributor in the field of meteorology and climate science. Also, the KMA is continuously raising its status in the international community including the WMO through collaborating in the development of new meteorological technologies and closing capacity gaps among Member countries.
Since 2007, the KMA has served as a member of the WMO Executive Council(EC). During the eighteenth World Meteorological Congress in June 2019, Administrator of the KMA, was elected an EC member, leading to KMA’s continued EC membership. As a member of the EC, the KMA was represented at various important WMO meetings including technical meetings, the Congress and the EC and actively participated in the WMO Programmes such as VCP, AMDAR, etc. It has also developed initiatives to share its technology and experience with developing countries. Thanks to these activities, the KMA is now considered as one of the most significant contributors to the WMO in both technical and financial aspects.
The KMA have actively participated in various meetings including WMO Executive Council and Technical Commissions, strengthening its position and role as a member of the WMO Executive Council by hosting the 17th Session of Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM-17) in 2018 in the Republic of Korea. As part of efforts to nurture international professionals, the KMA has also run a training course for Korean undergraduate and graduate students for the past 6 years. Every year it selects competent students and dispatchs them to relevant international organizations, including WMO, Typhoon Committee (TC), Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
The KMA devotes itself to the activities of the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee (TC), which was established in 1968 to promote and coordinate programs for minimizing typhoon disasters in the Asia-Pacific region. Since the foundation of TC, KMA has exchanged technology and the ideas relevant to typhoon forecasting and prevention of disasters with other member countries in order to improve the accuracy of typhoon forecasting and set up a prompt communication system. KMA has attended annual TC sessions, and hosted the 23rd (1990), the 32nd (1999), and the 43rd (2011) sessions in Seoul.
As a focal point for the IPCC of the Republic of Korea, the KMA plays a key role in coordinating international and domestic cooperation relevant to IPCC activities. The KMA has attended an IPCC plenary and made key decisions of the IPCC with government representatives around the world. The 48th Session in October was held in Incheon, Korea, jointly organized by the KMA and Incheon Metropolitan City. At the session, a Special Report on Global Warming 1.5°C that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) requested to the IPCC was finally approved to provide scientific grounds for the Paris Agreement. On the occasion of the IPCC Session held in Korea, various Korean media outlets reported the Session and climate change issues, raising the public’s interest and understanding of climate change and serving as an opportunity to strengthen the ability to respond to Framework Convention on Climate Change between countries. A total of 11 Koreans were selected as the authors of the Working Group (WGI, II, and III) Report for the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be published between 2021 and 2022.
The KMA was designated as a WMO Regional Training Center (RTC) in June 2015. Since then, it has been focusing on enhancing the capacity of meteorologists and meteorological technicians in member countries for their respective public weather services, aviation, marine and hydrological forecasting, and climate services, as well as promoting collaboration to establish the WMO Global Campus and educational cooperation system for the Asian region. The RTC-Korea operates a variety of training courses, such as weather radar operation and data utilization, and weather forecasting for foreign experts, to share meteorological technologies and know-how with a budget allocated to Official Development Assistance (ODA). In addition, the RTC-Korea joined a global capacity building program offered by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to provide training courses on ICT for meteorological services, satellite data application and Maintenance of Meteorological Instruments and Early Warning System. As part of an MOU with the Hallym University, which was signed in April 2019, the KMA provides “On-site Training Course for International Graduate Students” in response to climate change for developing countries under the sponsorship of KOICA.
| Training Title | Duration | Venue | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| International Training Course on Weather Forecasting for Operational Meteorologist | 2 weeks | Seoul | 15 persons |
| International Training Course on Weather Radar Data Utilization | 2 week | Seoul | 20 persons |
| 2021 KMA On-site Training Course for Internationl Graduate Students at Hallym University | 17 weeks | Seoul | 15 persons |
| Capacity Building for Maintenance of Meteorological Instruments and Early Warning System | 2 weeks | Seoul | 20 persons |
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REPUBLIC OF KOREA
SEOUL : 61 16-GIL, YEOUIDAEBANG-RO, DONGJAK-GU, SEOUL, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
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