Agricultural Irrigation (농업수리화 / Nongop Surihwa)

Agricultural Irrigation
농업수리화 / Nongop Surihwa
Translation and backgrounder by Stephen Mercado

A bimonthly journal covering practices and techniques in irrigating farmland, published by the Agricultural Publishing House.

Journal Title: The journal title has various renderings. Agricultural Irrigation is the name in English. Its name in a simplified version of the standard McCune-Reischauer (M-R) transliteration system and the actual title in Korean listed above. Its full M-R transliteration, as used in catalogs of the Library of Congress and other major libraries, is Nongo’p surihwa.

Author Information: In recent years, the authors of the editorials and other political articles at the beginning of the journal articles have been named and identified as “our company’s reporter.” While authors are given for the major articles, relatively fewer authors have appeared with information regarding their affiliation, academic degrees or positions in recent years. In line with the journal’s title and content, most of the identified authors have been affiliated with relevant universities, State Academy of Sciences (SAS) institutes and relevant organizations, including the Hamhung University of Hydraulic Engineering, the Kim Je Won Haeju University of Agriculture and the South Hwanghae Provincial Agricultural Construction and Design Institute.

Subject Matter: The articles have to do with issues related to agricultural irrigation.

References: Authors do not cite sources of information, and there are no endnotes.

Sections: Each issue comprises a front cover; an unnumbered page with one or two leading slogans and a framed quotation of one of the three generations of the Kim family; a table of contents (TOC) in Korean; the articles; the publishing information; an unnumbered inside back page showing meteorological data or propaganda (in some issues); and the back cover. Regime messages/propaganda appear throughout the journal.

The front cover features the journal title, under which is the name of the publisher, the issue number and year of issue. The TOC, often appearing under a slogan, shows the journal title, issue number and year of issue, and the cumulative issue number. The TOC starts with two or three items, each either an editorial or some other political article. There follows some number of articles, many appearing within a frame under a slogan.

Publisher: The publisher’s name in English is the Agricultural Publishing House. It is the Nongop Chulpansa in simplified M-R and 농업출판사 in Korean. The publisher’s name appears in Korean on the journal’s cover and in English on the copyright line on the publishing information page.

The publisher publishes an issue every other month, starting in January, totaling six issues per year. Issue 4 (July), 2022, according to the TOC and the publishing information page, was cumulative issue number 218. The publishing information page also indicated that there was an editorial committee (no members named), the publisher was the Agricultural Publishing House, the place of printing was the Pyongyang General Printing Plant, the date of printing was 15 July Juche 111 (2022), and the date of issue was 20 July Juche 111 (2022). The copyright line was © Agricultural Publishing House 2022, DPR Korea. In recent years, the back cover has shown a bar code with the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) above it. The journal showed no periodical publication number.