IFES-FNF North Korea Conference
"North Korea's Development Capacity and International Cooperation for Knowledge Sharing" was the title of a conference organized by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Kyungnam University, and Friedrich Naumann Foundation on June 11th. More than 130 attendants were eager to hear more about North Korea's gender, agriculture, and tourism perspectives.
"Close observers of North Korea would agree that the social status of North Korean women is not as high as it claims", Assistant Minister for Unification Youn Miryang said in her keynote speech. However, women have become the main bread-winners in North Korea in recent years, according to Professor Kim Hae-Soon of Chung-Ang University. That's why Choson Exchange, a Singapore based non-profit organization, has been training more than 130 women from seven North Korean provinces in business, finance, and law. Nils Weisensee, CEO's entrepreneurship programs coordinator: "Now, a younger generation of women (and men), who have barely experienced the old centralized distribution system in proper operation, are pushing to develop their own career in business."
While Choson Exchange takes North Korean women on study trips to Singapore, the American Friends Service Committee organizes study tours for farmers to China because "seeing is believing," as stated by Linda Lewis. The AFSC Country Representative went on: "Most useful for farm managers is observing first-hand practices on Chinese farms, with the opportunity to talk with farmers themselves." World Vision's annual agricultural symposiums have been another opportunity for talk.
"The symposiums connected North and South Korean scholars and enabled them to discuss freely about the things they have been curious about. It also created flow of information that later changed into a chain of trust between North and South Korea agricultural specialist," reported Senior Program Director Lee Jusung.
Why does North Korea let foreigners train its people? "Without nurturing professionals, it is impossible to sustain growth," reckoned Professor Lim Eul-chul of Kyungnam University. He gave exciting insights on development plans for North Korean travel destinations and thinks: "North Korea's higher officials and intellectuals are analyzing the ultimate purpose of 'new economic management system' as economic reform and opening. There is also a possible argument that North Korea is concentrating on tourism business as a preliminary step toward economic reform and opening." Young Pioneer Tours has been bringing foreign tourists to North Korea for more than six years. They are seeing business double annually, and had nearly 1,000 clients in the past year. YPT's managers Gareth Johnson and Troy Collings said: "There is the misconception that Pyongyang is the only place tourists can visit. In fact, it is possible to visit locations in eight of the nine provinces (Jagang being the one exception) as well as Pyongyang and the Rason Special Economic Zone."
