The Myohyangsan Biosphere Reserve was registered as a world biosphere reserve in May 2009. It is surrounded by Hyangbiro Peak (1 909m) and other high mountain peaks.

As a typical temperate mountain ecosystem, the reserve constitutes the central area of genetic, species and ecosystem diversity in the DPRK.

The reserve has a wide range of species from lowland to highland plants, and hundreds of kinds of vertebrates, including dozens of species of mammals and more than a hundred species of birds.

The reserve is home to dozens of species of endangered and indigenous plants, including Pinus pumila, Thuja koraiensis and Sabina sargentii, and dozens of kinds of endangered animals such as bears, otters, musk deer and Pteromys volans.