N.Korea says puts "great effort" into environment
The country "has directed a great effort" to research environmental protection, the state news agency KCNA reported.
"Researchers have developed a new material for removing exhaust fumes from automobiles so as to cut the greenhouse gas emissions and reduce air pollution 35-40 percent," it said, without elaborating.
It also said "units" in the capital, Pyongyang, that caused pollution had been registered, suggesting that dirty industries were under pressure to get clean.
"They are now developing a gas and dust arrester necessary in production processes and new materials needed to secure environmental safety of products," it said.
The isolated communist country's state-run media periodically boasts revolutionary innovations in science and technology, despite a moribund economy and chronic food shortages.
Perhaps the most visible in recent years have been related to the relatively well-funded -- and well-fed -- military. North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests since 2006 and several missile launches, upsetting its neighbors.
North Korean scientists also invented a device using "locally available materials" to incinerate hospital waste, KCNA said, and the Environmental Protection Institute of the Ministry of Land and Environmental Conservation had intensified research into pollution-free vegetable production.
(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Paul Tait)