In the past few years, DPR Korea has made some progress on informing the at-risk communities on the likely disasters from natural hazards. However, follow-up actions after the occurrence of natural hazards remain largely temporary and good governance with respect to the early warning system is key to sound disaster risk management. In 2023, the Vietnamese government adopted enhancing quality of forecast and warning as one of the key tasks of the government, according to the National Disaster Prevention and Control Strategy and Plan 2030 Vision to 2050. Against this backdrop, ESCAP worked with a national consultant to document Viet Nam’s existing end-to-end early warning system to support operationalization of a similar system in the DPR Korea. This is in a spirit of continued cooperation building dating from the meeting in 2015 where an exchange was held between the DPR Korea and Viet Nam to share information, knowledge, and best practices on developing and implementing disaster management laws.

Taking the national needs of the DPR Korea rising from the natural hazard riskscape as well as institutional similarity and complementarity between the two countries, the report aims to document the end-to-end process of early warning system in Viet Nam at all government level for addressing natural hazard events. Furthermore, focusing on where the DPR Korea may especially be susceptible to risk from natural hazards, the report illustrates a set of sector-specific processes in more detail for: 1) agriculture; 2) energy; and 3) health.