We summarize our preliminary study on the research cooperation method in the astronomy field between Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). To investigate the recent astronomical activities of North Korea, we have surveyed the published records of research papers and international collaborations associated with North Korean astronomers. We found only 4 astronomical papers among the identified 260 SCI papers related to North Korean researchers for the past 11 years. North Korean astronomers had very few interactions with the international astronomical society before rejoining IAU in 2012. Recently, North Korea made several astronomical research exchanges with China and Netherlands. They seemed to attend several international conferences and present their research results. We have studied possibilities to establish international networks to encourage the cooperation between South and North, and suggest to start collaboration in the historical astronomy. The collaboration can be expanded gradually to other fields in astronomy. There are many obvious political difficulties to have interactions with North Koreans. However, it will be necessary to make a long-term plan considering the reunification.

We have observed the deuterated methanol, CH3OD, toward the hot core MM1 in the massive star-forming region DR21 (OH) using the Submillimeter Array with a high angular resolution of about 1 arcsecond. The position of the hot core associated with the sub-core MM1a was confirmed to coincide with the continuum peak where an embedded young stellar object is located. The column density of CH3OD was found to be about (2 ± 1) x 1016 cm-2 toward the MM1a center. The abundance ratio CH3OD/CH3OH was measured to be ~ 0.45, which is about the median value for low mass star-forming cores but much larger than those of the massive star-forming cores. The ratio is believed to change depending on, for example, the chemical condition, the temperature and the density of the source. This ratio may further depend on the evolutionary phase especially in the massive-star-forming cores. The sub-core MM1a is thought to be in the very early phase of star formation. This large abundance ratio found in this source indicates that even the massive star-forming cores, during a relatively short period in the very early stage of star formation, may also show a chemical state resulted from the cold and dense pre-collapsing phase, the enhanced deuteration as found in low mass star-forming cores.

Astrochemistry provides powerful tools to understand various cosmic phenomena, including those in our solar system to the large-scale structure of the universe. In addition, the chemical property of an astronomical body is a crucial factor which governs the evolution of the system. Recent progress in astrophysical theories, computational modelings, and observational techniques requires a detailed understanding of the interactions between the constituents of an astronomical system, which are atoms and molecules within the system. Especially the far-infrared/sub-millimeter wave range, which is called as the last frontier in astronomical observations, contains numerous molecular lines, which may provide a huge amount of new information. However, we need an astrochemical understanding to use this information fully. Although this review is very limited, I would like to stress the importance of astrochemical approach in this overview for the field, which is getting much more attention than ever before.

We observed the thermal transitions of SiO (J=I-0, 2-1) and 29SiO (J=l-O) toward the Sgr A molecular clouds. The distribution and the velocity structure of SiO are very similar to previous results for 'quiet' interstellar molecules. We think· that the SiO has been well mixed with other molecules such as H2 which may indicate that the formation of Sgr A molecular clouds was affected by the activities, such as shock waves or energetic photons, from the Galactic center in large scales. The total column density of SiO is about 4.1×1014cm−2 and the fractional abundance SiO/H2 appears to be about 10 times larger than those of other clouds in the central region of our galaxy. The derived values are thought to be lower limits since the optical depths of the observed SiO lines are not very thin. The formation of SiO has been known to be critically related to shocks, and our results provide informative data on the environment of our Galactic center.