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.

Using the Submillimeter Array (SMA), we identified two bright hot subcores, MM1a and MM1b (size ~ 1" and mass ~ 0.5 M⊙) separated by about 1.600, in the 230 GHz continuum emission toward the massive star-forming region DR21(OH). Both display typical hot core characteristics but have slightly different chemical properties. For example, highly saturated species show stronger emission toward MM1a and seem to be evaporating directly from the grain mantles. In contrast, simple sulfur-bearing species have brighter emission at MM1b. These features indicate that MM1a is at an earlier stage than MM1b, and the small-scale chemical differences between these two cores may result from the age difference of the order of 104 104 years.

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.

The molecular cloud, embedding AFGL 2591, has a “head-and-tail” structure with a total mass of ∼ 1800 M⊙, about half of the mass (∼ 900 M⊙) in the head (size ∼ 1.2 pc in diameter), and another half in the envelope (∼ 3.5 pc in the east-west direction). We found a new cloud in the direction toward north-east from AFGL 2591 (projected distance ∼ 2.4 pc), which is probably associated with the AFGL 2591 cloud. The 12CO spectrum clearly shows a blue-shifted high-velocity wing at around the velocity −20 ∼ −10 km s−1, but it is not clear whether this high-velocity component has a bipolar nature in our observations. The observed CN spectra also show blue-shifted wing component but the existence of the red-shifted component is not clear, either. In some CN and HCN spectra, the highvelocity components appear as a different velocity component, not a broad line-wing component. The dense cores, traced by CN and HCN, exist in the ‘head’ of the AFGL 2591 cloud with an elongated morphology roughly in the north-south direction with a size of about 0.5 pc. The abundance ratio between CN and HCN is found to be about 2 − 3 within the observed region, which may suggest a possibility that this core is being affected by the embedded YSOs or by possible shocks from outside.

The 2-1 and 5-4 transitions of SiO have been observed toward the Sgr B2 region, including the Principal Cloud(the GMC containing Sgr B2(M)) and its surroundings. The morphology and velocity structure of the SiO emission show a close resemblance with the HNCO Ring feature, identified by Minh & Irvine(2006), of about 10 pc in diameter, which may be expanding and colliding with the Principal Cloud. Three SiO clumps have been found around the Ring, with total column densities Nsio ~1x1014 cm-2 at the peak positions of these clumps. The fractional SiO abundance relative to H2 has been estimated to be ~(0.5-1)X10-9, which is about two orders of magnitude larger than the quiet dense cloud values. Our SiO observational result supports the existence of an expanding ring, which may be triggering active star formations in the Principal Cloud.

The H2S 22,0 - 21,1 line emission is observed to be strongly localized toward Sgr B2(M), and emissions from other positions in the more extended SgrB2 region are almost negligible. H2S is thought to form effectively by the passage of the C-type shocks but to be quickly transformed to SO2 or other sulfur species (Pineau des Forets et al. 1993). Such a shock may have enhanced the H2S abundance in Sgr B2(M), where massive star formation is taking place. But the negligible emission of H2S from other observed positions may indicate that these positions have not been affected by shocks enough to produce H2S, or if they have experienced shocks, H2S may have transformed already to other sulfur-containing species. The SO2 222,20 - 221,21 line was also observed to be detectable only toward the (M) position. The line intensity ratios of these two molecules appear to be very similar at Sgr B2(M) and IRAS 16239-2422, where the latter is a region of low-mass star formation. This may suggest that the shock environment in these two star-forming regions is similar and that the shock chemistry also proceeds in a similar fashion in these two different regions, if we accept shock formation of these two species.

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.

We have investigated the properties of the high-latitude cloud MBM 7 using the 3 mm transitions of CO, CS, HCN, HCO+,C3H2,N2H+, and SiO. The molecular component of MBM 7 shows a very clumpy structure with a size of ≤0.5 pc, elongated along the northwest-southeast direction, perpendicularly to an extended HI component, which could be resulted from shock formation. We have derived physical properties for two molecular cores in the central region. Their sizes are 0.1-0.3 pc and masses 1-2 M⊙ having an average volume density ~2×10 3 cm-3 at the peak of molecular emission. We have tested the stability of the cores using the full version of the virial theorem and found that the cores are stabilized with ambient medium, and they are expected not to be dissipated easily without external perturbations. Therefore MBM 7 does not seem to be a site for new star formation. The molecular abundances in the densest core appear to be much less (by about one order of magnitude) than the 'general' dark cloud values. If the depletions of heavy elements are not significant in the HLCs compared with those in typical dark clouds, our results may suggest different chemical evolutionary stages or different chemical environments of the HLCs compared with dense dark clouds in the Galactic plane.

We have observed the 10-9 transitions of HC3N and its 13C substitutes (H13CCCN,HC13CCN, and HCC13CN), and the vibration ally excited 12-11 (vr=1) HC3N transition toward the Sgr B2 molecular cloud. The observed HC3N emission shows an elongated shape around the Principal Cloud (~4.5 pc in R.A. × 7.4 pc in Decl.). The optically thin H13CCCN line peaks around the (N) core and we derive the total column density N(H13CCCN) = 4 ×10 13 cm-2 at this position. Toward the 2' N cloud which shows the peculiar chemistry, the HC3N lines show enhancements compared to the extended envelope. The shocks of the 2' N may have resulted in the enhancement of HC3N. The hot component of HC3N is strongly concentrated around the (N) core and its HPW is ~0.9 pc in diameter. We derive the lower limit of the abundance ratio N(HC3N)/N(H13CCCN) to be larger than 40 in most regions except the (M) and (N) cores. The fractionation processes of 13C at this region may not be as effective as previously reported.

The 3mm transitions to CO, 13CO, CS, HCO+, and HCN have been observed toward the compact HII regions in W58 using the 14m Daeduk Radio Telescope (DRT). Some of the observed lines show high-velocity wings resulted from outflowing materials of the compact HII regions. We derive the beam averaged column densities of the observed species and compare their relative abundances. The HCO+ abundance appears to be smaller by about an order of magnitude than those of 'typical' quiet molecular clouds. CS may be a good reference molecule in comparing relative abundances in different physical conditions.

We have mapped the C 3 H 2 2 12 − 1 01 transition line toward the Sgr A molecular cloud on a 1' grid spacing and derived C 3 H 2 column densities of 3 \~ 7 × 10 14 c m − 2 for molecular clouds of Sgr A. The fractional abundances of C 3 H 2 relative to H 2 are obtained to be 3 \~ 6 × 10 − 9 , which are slightly lower than that for the cold dark cloud TMC-1 but are enhanced by factors of 5-60 compared to those for Sgr B2 and the Orion extended ridge. We also estimate from the C 3 H 2 column densities total masses of \~ 10 6 M ⨀ for two clouds (M - 0.13 - 0.08 and M - 0.02 - 0.07), which are thought to be close to the virial equilibrium. We suggest that the large abundance of C 3 H 2 in Sgr A may be partly due to the activities of the Galactic center.

Using the Daeduk Radio Telescope, we have observed J = 1 → 0 transitions of 1 12 C O , 13 C O a n d C 18 O toward OMC-l. The column densities of 1 \~ 5 × 10 17 c m − 2 a n d 1 \~ 3 × 10 16 c m − 2 have been derived, for 13 C O and C 18 O , respectively, in the 11 ′ × 11 ′ region centered at Orion - KL. The double isotope ratio [ 13 C O ] / [ C 18 O ] was found to be larger than the cosmic abundance ratio by factors of 2 \~ 10 which may result from the chemical fractionation effect.

We report a null detection of 12 C O emission from a sub-condensation in a High Velocity Cloud (HVC). As a consequence of this, an upper limit of n ( H 2 ) X ( C O ) D V / D R ≤ 2 × 10 − 5 was set. This implies that 12 C O abundance is deficient by at least a factor of 10 if the HVC is predominantly molecular, otherwise the CO abundance of the HVC might be normal.