KOREA FOCUS

A non-governmental U.S. delegation, led by Peter C. Agre, the 2003 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, and Stuart Thorson, professor of political science and international relations at Syracuse University, has just completed a five-day visit to Pyongyang as part of a U.S.-North Korea science exchange program.

 

After arriving in the North on December 10, the six-person delegation of the U.S.-DPRK (North Korea) Scientific Engagement Consortium reportedly met with the North's scientists and science policy officials to explore practical opportunities for exchange and collaboration. It was the first time that a Nobel laureate in science visited North Korea. Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 and 2002, respectively, after they traveled to North Korea.

 

The U.S.-DPRK Scientific Engagement Consortium, established in 2007 to explore collaborative science activities between the two countries, includes four organizations – the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes international scientific and technical collaboration, Syracuse University and the Korea Society. Agre, a professor of Johns Hopkins University, is president of the AAAS.

 

North Korean scientists reportedly gave an enthusiastic welcome to the renowned U.S. scientists, who were impressed with the high levels of research by North Korean scientists. This reporter met with Thorson for an interview on December 16. The 63-year-old Thorson, director of the Korean Peninsula Affairs Center at the Maxwell School/Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse, has been involved in various cooperation projects with Pyongyang-based Kim Chaek University of Technology since 2001.

 

 

A. We didn't see a lot of students. They said the students were on a holiday during that time. Classes were not in session. The faculty responded very well. Our host was the State Academy of Sciences. We went to the University of Sciences, an elite school operated by the State Academy of Sciences, the Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. Peter is a very warm-hearted, friendly, gregarious person and at the University of Sciences, he gave a brief and very informal talk about his research that led to the Nobel Prize (water in and out of the body). He presented in a way that was humorous and translators did a good job of capturing that. Plus, most of them spoke enough English to catch on. Peter could just as well be on a stage on Broadway, gestures and all that. They responded very well to him. One of Peter's interests, and one of my interests, is the development of young scientists and bringing more women into science. We talked a lot about that. Ten percent of their students at the University of Sciences are female. That's not bad but we'd all like to get more women involved in science. We saw a number of female faculty members at Pyongyang University of Sciences.

 

 

A. The State Academy of Sciences has underneath it a number of branches that specialize in various things: biology, hydraulic engineering, thermal engineering, which is their group that looks at renewable energy sources. We were generally quite impressed with the quality of science reported. At the University of Sciences, young faculty members made brief presentations on the research work they were doing and we were quite impressed by it. We heard some very interesting presentations that involved mathematical modeling of various phenomena. Peter said in his presentation that he looks forward to the day soon when there will be a Korean awarded the Nobel science prize. He was careful to say Korea but in that context, he was talking about the DPR Korea.