The P’yongyang Project - Academic Cooperation and Cultural Exchange between North Koreans and Americans

During my recent research efforts I came across a very interesting program called The P'yongyang Project.  The P'yongyang Project is an academic cooperation and cultural exchange program for Americans in North Korea.  Their mission follows:


Our mission is to forge a new level of academic cooperation and cultural exchange between North Koreans and Americans. We believe that through personal experience, interaction and continued dialogue, we can lay the foundation for peace and prosperity between our nations.


Currently, four different programs make up The P'yongyang Project.  I have copied and pasted descriptions of these four programs below:  


Delegation Trips allow participants to interact with and explore the DPRK in an intimate and academic way. These programs combine group discussions, travel, meetings, and group bonding activities, to take students and professors well beyond the surface of the DPRK. This kind of in-depth access provides participants with a comprehensive introduction to the core issues facing the nation and region.


The North South Dialogue Project (NSDP) was started as an offshoot of P’yongyang Project delegation trips and incorporates many of the academic components of a delegation trip. The key difference is that NSDP delegates work toward creating a consensus document that offers policy suggestions for maintaining stability on the Korean peninsula. In order to draft this document, participants will spend a significant amount of time in South Korea participating in workshops and discussions.


THiNK (Transcending History in North Korea) is an intensive Korean Language Summer Study Program in P’yongyang—the first study abroad program for Westerners in the DPRK. We have worked hard to negotiate a joint deal between The P'yongyang Project, KIYCTC, the Ministry of Education of the DPRK and Kim Il Sung University to make this program a reality.


Independent Programsare tailor-made for schools looking to establish their own program in the DPRK. We are currently working with several North American universities and colleges to create programs that match their goals and curriculum. Individuals or small groups may also contact us if they are interested in traveling to North Korea independently.


You can learn more about all of these programs at http://www.pyongyangproject.org/programs.html as well as in articles from the Harvard Crimson and the Brown Daily Herald.


You can read related posts on academic and cultural exchanges with North Korea at:


U.S.-DPRK Science Engagement Consortium
Another Call for Exchanges with North Korea


Photo credit:  John Pavelka

U.S.-DPRK Science Engagement Consortium

Last week I posted to Twitter (RT of @PublicDiplomacy) and listed on IHEC Blog’s “Links of Interest” post on Friday the following article “U.S. Scientists Due in Pyongyang for Talks on Academic Cooperation” from Brunei fm World. In my busy I life last week I didn’t stop to think about the significance of these talks but over the weekend I thought much more about this and wondered why I only picked this up via @PublicDiplomacy's Twitter post and didn't read it in any U.S. media outlets.

I then investigated further and went to the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) & the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CDRF) websites to see what they were saying about this historic visit by U.S. scientists to North Korea. You can read the joint AAAS/CDRF news release here.

I have copied and pasted a snippet of the news release below that further describes the U.S.-DPRK Science Engagement Consortuim visit:

“The six-person delegation of the U.S.-DPRK Science Engagement Consortium aims to discuss and identify future opportunities for collaborative research activities with the DPRK in fields of mutual interest.

The consortium is composed of four organizations: CRDF, a nonprofit organization that promotes international scientific and technical collaboration; AAAS, the world's largest general science society; Syracuse University, which has been engaged with Kim Chaek University of Technology in Pyongyang in the only sustained U.S.- North Korea academic science collaboration to date; and The Korea Society, a nonprofit group that promotes greater awareness, understanding and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea.”

You can read more information about the history of the U.S.-DPRK Science Engagement Consortium here.

The scientific community here in the United States has been quite active in conducting Science Diplomacy with so many countries across the globe. Nearly a year ago (December 18, 2008) I posted to IHEC Blog about an interesting development in U.S.-Iranian scientific collaboration and you can access that post entitled“Science as a Gateway to Understanding: International Workshop Proceedings, Tehran, Iran (2008)” here.

More on what I discovered on the American Association for Advancement of Science and the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation websites later on IHEC Blog’s Facebook page.

My question is this...with all of the international scientific collaboration happening across the globe why do we make it so difficult for students in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) to study, research or intern abroad? To me, an international academic experience should be a required part of any STEM field program of study.

공감 (미주 유학생과 새터민 학생에 대한 공감 리포트)

A short time ago I received a wonderful gift in the mail. One of my former advisees (an international student from South Korea) from my professional work in The College at The University of Chicago sent me a book that she recently published. It was a very nice to hear from her as it’s been about two years since she graduated. Her book is published in both Korean and English which is nice for me as I (unfortunately) don’t speak or read Korean. What is even more interesting is that her book fits perfectly with the theme of IHEC Blog so I thought I would post about it since I finally was able to finish reading her book. Here is a brief description of Empathy: A Light to My Soul (2009) by Jessica Jungmin Lee from the front cover: “The stories of South Korean students in the United States vs. the narratives of North Korean adolescents in South Korea: Reconstructing Identities through ‘SELF-NARRATIVES’”.

I found Empathy: A Light to My Soul to be a very interesting read and one that should be of interest to international educators. If you read Korean you can learn more about this book as well as order a copy of the book from here ('m assuming this is the page for this). Update: The link I provide does not take you directly to webpage for Empathy: A Light to My Soul but rather to a list of books. I think this has to do with the Google translation of the webpage. Fixing this link problem is beyond my technical scope of practice but you can find the book on this page by scrolling to the very bottom and you'll find it. Thanks to my colleague Bettina Hansel over at Intercultural Eyes for catching this!

Another Call for Exchanges with North Korea

In the March 20, 2009 issue of the Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, Bruce Klingner argues that North Korea may be the most intractable foreign policy challenge facing President Barack Obama. Klingner offers several policy suggestions for the U.S. to consider beyond the six-party talks including, but not limited to, expanding public diplomacy efforts including facilitating “formal student and cultural exchange programs.”

You can access this interesting issue of the Backgrounder here.

Please visit here for a recent and similar IHEC Blog post focusing on educational and cultural exchanges with North Korea.

A Call for Educational Exchange with North Korea

During my research efforts on public diplomacy I came across an interesting article entitled “The North Korean Paradox and the Subversive Truth” by Andrei Lankov in Asian Outlook published by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Lankov notes that in order for regime transformation to occur in North Korea we must make use of methods other than coercion that include, among others, cultural and educational exchange.

You can access this article and download in pdf format here.