Home > What we do > International Cooperation > Bilateral Cooperation
On top of active participation in the WMO, the KMA has expanded its bilateral cooperation with other countries. The KMA has signed an agreement on bilateral cooperation in meteorological activities with various countries to achieve common goals in meteorological services: China (1994), Australia (1996), Russia (1999), Germany (2000), the US (2000), Mongolia (2003), Iran (2005), the Philippines (2007), Vietnam (2009), India (2010), Hong Kong (2012), the UK (2012), Indonesia (2012), Qatar (2013), Taiwan (2019), Ethiopia (2014), Saudi Arabia (2015), France (2018) and Nigeria (2019). In 2005, the KMA has succeeded in concluding an agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to share technologies and human resources in mutually beneficial ways.
In addition, the KMA signed a MOU with several intergovernmental or international organizations: the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Meteorology and Geophysics (SCMG) in 2005; the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) in 2006; the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) of the World Bank in 2012; the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in 2012; and the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2017.
The basic direction of bilateral cooperation with the WMO Members is: To raise the level of meteorological technology through close cooperation with advanced countries and neighboring countries; To promote cooperation in specialized meteorological areas with the Members, taking into consideration their advanced meteorological technologies; To promote meteorological projects on improving technology and enhancing its practical use, in order to resolve pending issues and difficulties; and To increase cooperation with developing countries gradually, including providing support in advancing their meteorological services.
An arrangement on cooperation in the field of meteorological science and technology was signed between the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) on July 11, 1994. The arrangement covers the following cooperative areas: Establishment of the Beijing-Seoul Meteorological Telecommunication Circuit; Promotion of cooperation projects on advanced technology, its application and development; Exchange of knowledge, techniques, and methods on numerical weather prediction and climate change; Services related to observation, forecasting and warning of disastrous weather phenomena; Exchange of techniques developed in the field of telecommunication, satellite image analysis, and data processing; and Marine meteorology.
Since the signing of the agreement on the establishment of the Beijing-Seoul Meteorological Telecommunication Circuit on July 11, 1994, the Beijing-Seoul meteorological circuit has been functioning as one of the regional circuits of WMO GTS within the framework of the World Weather Watch Programme. The two services have held 15 joint working group sessions on cooperation in the field of meteorology. Under the agreement, they have been exchanging meteorological experts and conducting joint projects.
Since the signing of the MOU between KMA and CMA in 1994, an agreement on meteorological science and technology have been concluded between regional offices of the two services as follows:
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Meteorology founded has signed an agreement with the Beijing Meteorological Service (BMS) in April 2016. In 2018 Daegu, Jeonju, and Cheongju Branch Offices of Meteorology, which were promoted from weather stations have concluded an agreement with Shanxi, Hubei and Guangdong Provincial Weather Service, respectively.
The KMA has also signed an arrangement with the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) on cooperation in the field of seismological sciences and technology in Seoul on July 26, 2001. Under the agreement, the two sides have agreed to carry out cooperative activities in the areas of seismological observation, seismological analysis, earthquake prediction, earthquake hazard analysis, and others. Both agencies have held 11 joint working group meetings, and have been cooperating in seismological issues through exchange of seismological observation data and analysis techniques, and joint research on volcanic activities at Baekdusan MOUntain.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the KMA and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) on cooperation in meteorology was exchanged on February 26, 1996. The areas of cooperation under this MOU include: numerical weather prediction, telecommunication, and aeronautical meteorology. The two agencies have held nine joint working group meetings and have been cooperating in several meteorological issues such as UM partnership, analysis and application of satellite data, and marine weather services.
The KMA and the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) have reached an arrangement on scientific and technological cooperation in the field of meteorology on May 6, 1999. Since then, the two services have held eight meetings in Moscow and Seoul. The cooperative areas include NWP, meteorological communication line between Seoul and Khabarovsk, joint climate change research, meteorological satellites, and weather modification.
The KMA and the German meteorological service, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) have signed a cooperation arrangement in February 2000 to improve the cooperation in scientific and technical areas of meteorology and related sciences. The cooperative areas they agreed upon include: weather analysis and forecasting; numerical weather prediction; climatology and climate consultancy; atmospheric dispersion; human biometeorology; agricultural meteorology; remote sensing and satellite meteorology; and commercial meteorological activities. The first meeting was held at the DWD’s headquarters in Offenbach from July 11 to 16, 2000. The two services have held seven meetings in Offenbach and in Seoul.
An arrangement on cooperation in meteorology and hydrology was signed between the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) and the KMA on September 20, 2000. The areas of cooperation under this arrangement include: operational weather forecasting, meteorological observations, meteorological telecommunications, aeronautical meteorology, and satellite meteorology. In 2005, the KMA has succeeded in concluding an agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with an aim of sharing a variety of technologies not only with the NWS, but with the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). The two sides have held six joint working group meetings.
The KMA and the National Agency for Meteorology, Environment Monitoring of Mongolia (NAMEM) have signed an arrangement on cooperation in meteorology and hydrology on May 29, 2003. The arrangement focuses on cooperation in the areas of: exchanging meteorological experts, researchers and technicians; sharing meteorological information and techniques; conducting joint research, seminars, workshops, symposiums and technical meetings; and education and training in specific fields. The KMA and NAMEM have held eight joint working group meetings.
The KMA and the UK’s Met Office have concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in June 2012. The two sides have agreed to cooperate in observations, information and communication technology, forecasting, climate, applied meteorology, meteorological R&D, and capacity building. Under the MOU, the two agencies have been cooperating in NWP model development, weather service and forecaster training.
The KMA have been forging cooperative relations with many countries around the world. It has signed a bilateral agreement on cooperation in meteorology with Iran (2005), the Philippines (2007), Vietnam (2009), India (2010), Hong Kong (2012), Indonesia (2012), Qatar (2013), Taiwan (2019), Ethiopia (2014), Saudi Arabia (2015), France (2018), and Nigeria (2019).
In particular, since the signing of the MOU with Qatar in 2013, the KMA sent four meteorological experts to the Qatar Meteorology Department, contributing to the advancement of meteorological techniques in Qatar.
Cooperation with ASEAN
In 2005 a formal relationship between the KMA and the ASEAN Sub-Committee on Meteorology and Geophysics (SCMG) was established to promote and strengthen cooperation activities in the area of meteorology. In 2006, 2010 and 2011 training workshops on utilization of NWP products was held in Seoul and in Malaysia, and a training workshop on processing and recovery of weather and climate data took place in Seoul, 2018 as part of the practical implementation of cooperation activities.
Cooperation with EUMETSAT
The KMA and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) have concluded a MOU in November 2006. Since the signing of the MOU, the two sides have had seven bilateral meetings and have been cooperating in the field of meteorological satellite.
Cooperation with Other Organizations
The KMA has signed a MOU with the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) of the World Bank in 2012, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in 2012, and the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2017.
DAEJEON : GOVERNMENT COMPLEX-DAEJEON BLDG 1 11~14F, 189 CHEONGSA-RO, SEO-GU, DAEJEON,
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
SEOUL : 61 16-GIL, YEOUIDAEBANG-RO, DONGJAK-GU, SEOUL, REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Copyright(c) 2022 KMA all rights reserved. E-mail : master_kma@kma.go.kr
