In this study, land surface model was used to simulate the soil moisture of South and North Korea for the past 30
years, and the difference in their variation was analyzed. In addition, satellite observed soil moisture data provided by
Soil Moisture CCI was analyzed to evaluate the simulation results of VIC model. For the comparison between the
simulated and observed data, the CSEOF analysis was applied to indirectly assess the performance of the VIC model
rather than simply comparing soil moisture values. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, the
annual variability of soil moisture showed a similar tendency in both South and North Korea, but it was found that
the soil moisture in South Korea was as high as 1%, up to 7%, higher than the soil moisture in North Korea. Secondly,
the soil moisture in spring between April to June is similar in South and North Korea, whereas the soil moisture after
the rainy season is up to 40% in South Korea, but remains at maximum 32% in North Korea. Third, the overall
simulated soil moisture is about 4% smaller than the satellite observed soil moisture, but the degree of increase over
the past 30 years is similar to that of satellite observed soil moisture. Finally, a comparison of the CSEOF from the
satellite observed soil moisture and the VIC model derived soil moisture showed that the soil moisture from April to
June shows a much different pattern from each other. However, in July and October, there was a slight similarity, and
it was confirmed that August and September has quite similar patterns.