North Korean Urban Planners visit Germany
North-Korea often makes the headlines on politically sensitive issues. However, this country has also daily problems related to developments that Germany got already over in part. Thus Germany serves as a role model, especially when it comes to technical issues.
In late November, nine North Korean delegates made a one-week journey to Germany. Most of them were urban planners and architects. The main theme of the study tour was “Sustainable Urban Planning”. During the trip across Germany from Berlin by way of Bitterfeld and Kassel to Bonn and the Ruhr region, the delegates learned not only technical innovation but also got fundamental information on the matter of sustainable urban planning in Germany.
The tour mainly focused on restructuring measures. In Bitterfeld-Wolfen, mayor Petra Wust portrayed how the long-standing industrial base, the chemical stronghold of former GDR, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, overcame the collapse of the GDR-companies (such as AGFA) and was reinvented through a prospective location policy.
The Ruhr region was confronted with a similar problem about twenty years ago. Above all, the mine shutdowns brought the region to a structural crisis. Several cities reacted, strengthening the urban marketing and establishing new branches of industry. In this context, the North Korean guests were highly interested in the transformation and renaturation of the Emscher river, the biggest drain in Germany.
Even though this visit program was technology-oriented, politics was not missed out. In the Landtag of Duesseldorf, the regional parliament of the state North Rhine-Westphalia, MP Kai Abruszat, a member of the liberal party, received the delegates and had a talk with them about the work of the Landtag and about the question on water supply, which is ensured at local level in Germany.
Since 2002, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom has conducted activities in the North of the divided peninsula. For quite some time, there has been the sign of changes in the economic policy in North Korea. The foundation wants to give support from this start point. Besides economic regeneration, the foundation dedicates also to the field of city planning and renewable energy.
