Verification of NOx emission inventories over North Korea

•The top-down and bottom-up NOx emissions over North Korea were analyzed.•REAS 1.1 is in good agreement with the top-down approach for both trend and amount.•The energy supply in North Korea was very poor and it had peculiar energy mix.•The NOx emission from agriculture became higher than transportation since 1994.•Monthly NOx emissions in North Korea were high in warm season and low in cold season.

In this study, the top-down NOx emissions estimated from satellite observations of NO2 vertical column densities over North Korea from 1996 to 2009 were analyzed. Also, a bottom-up NOx emission inventory from REAS 1.1 from 1980 to 2005 was analyzed with several statistics. REAS 1.1 was in good agreement with the top-down approach for both trend and amount. The characteristics of NOx emissions in North Korea were quite different from other developed countries including South Korea. In North Korea, emissions from industry sector was the highest followed by transportation sector in the 1980s. However, after 1990, the NOx emissions from other sector, mainly agriculture, became the 2nd highest. Also, no emission centers such as urban areas or industrial areas were distinctively observed. Finally, the monthly NOx emissions were high during the warm season.