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Students Return from Research Trip to North Korea,
Will Present Findings, Impressions at SIPA in October
Tae Young Kim (right), a SIPA student of South Korean descent, with the team’s North Korean guide in a symbolic gesture at the Reunification Monument near Pyongyang.
In May 2012, 15 SIPA students traveled on a five-day research trip to North Korea, likely the most closed-off nation in the modern world. They were accompanied by Professor Elisabeth Lindenmayer, director of the United Nations Studies Program at SIPA, who says the student-initiated trip was the first undertaken with the support of an American university.
In preparation for the trip, Lindenmayer worked with specialists at SIPA and the United Nations to provide students a thorough background on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as it is formally known. The DPRK is indeed oppressive in many regards, Lindenmayer says, but in other ways “it was not what we expected.”
To complete their project, participants will present findings and otherwise discuss their experience this fall. The special event is slated for October 2 at 6 p.m.
We will share more information between now and then, beginning with the following summary from the June 2012 edition of UNSP Wire, the newsletter of SIPA’s United Nations Studies Program:
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel to North Korea and see what the “hermit kingdom” really looks like and how it works? This May, SIPA’s Conflict Resolution Working Group (CRWG) and UN Studies Program (UNSP) teamed up and did just that. Professor Elisabeth Lindenmayer, Director of UNSP, led a research team of 15 SIPA students from around the globe on this unprecedented adventure sponsored by SIPA. The team traversed the country from Pyongyang to the east coast, visiting historic sites like the Tower of Juche Philosophy and the Arch of Triumph, hearing an account of the Korean war at the DMZ (demilitarized zone), visiting two universities, holding meetings with UNDP on the ground, and...even unwinding at an amusement park with regular North Koreans from all walks of life.
How did they manage to arrange the trip? Whose crazy idea was it anyway? What did they experience? The team will share their findings, impressions, confusions, and recommendations at a special panel event on The SIPA team and Professor Lindenmayer, with a North Korean military officer (see p3 for list of participants) October 2, 2012, from 6 to 8 p.m. in SIPA Room 1501. And stay tuned for a full trip report in the next edition of the UNSP Wire.
The following SIPA students participated in this unique experience: TaeYoung Kim (of Canada, MIA ’13), Pushkar Sharma (USA, MPA ’13), Mara Ladewig (USA,MPA ’12), Kazumi Kawamoto (Japan, MIA ’12), Patrick Martin-Menard (Canada, MIA ’12), Nicholas Java (USA, MIA ’13), Jin Zhou (China, MIA ’13), Samir Ashraf (USA, MIA ’13), Michelle Hanf (Germany, MPA ’13), Andrew Hill (USA, MIA ’13), Emily Siu (USA, MIA’13), Sandra Choi (USA, MIA ’13), Tara Badri (USA, MIA ’13), and Tarik Carney (Jamaica, MIA ’13). An additional student asked that she not be identified.
Student perspectives and additional photographs are featured here.
North Korean schoolchildren in Pyongyang wave to the SIPA group.