Prof. Pak U, the Vice President of MAB National Committee and Honorary Director of Biodiversity Centre, State Academy of Sciences (SOAS), DPRK, and Prof. Nanhui Shen visited IBCAS on March 17, accompanied by Jiangfeng Li, the DPRK embassy counselor and Wencan Li, the deputy representative of SOAS to China. Prof. Keping Ma, the deputy director and secretary general of the Biodiversity Committee, Chinese Academy of Science (BC-CAS) hosted the visit.

Keping Ma introduced the achievement that BC-CAS has made in the Catalogue of Life China 2013 Annual Checklist and Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network (CForBio), and displayed the progress in compiling Flora of China and Chinese Common Plant Identification Manuals. Prof. Pak U hoped to strengthen the cooperation between China and DPRK in forest biodiversity monitoring, introduction and cultivation of energy plants.

The SOAS was established in 1952. It is the highest and the most important academic institution in national sciences and technology research in DPRK.