Meetings
Inter-Korean Cooperation and Environmental Conservation
Meeting with Son Hyun-Soo and Lee Dong-Hoon (IPA)
On the 16th of February Ms. Son Hyun-Soo, vice president of IPA and Mr. Lee Dong-Hoon, researcher of IPA visited to HSF Korea in order to discuss future cooperation. The Institute for Peace Affairs (IPA) is a main project partner of HSF Korea related to reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. Both partners are regularly organizing the Tongil Hankuk Forum together. The Tongil Hankuk Forum is a joint conference on the environmental restoration on the Korean Peninsula. Main goal of this event is to bring experts and participants together which are interested in unification issues and geopolitics in Northeast Asia. You will find more information about the forum in our annual report on our work or in several articles on our website about the past conferences, for example, about the 31. Tongil Hankuk Forum in January 2020 which focused on environmental protection and peaceful cooperation on the Korean peninsula.
Meeting with Professor Park Chang-Mo
The meeting with Professor Park Chang-Mo, Chancellor at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) took place on the 17th of February. The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is an international initiative and presents the first and current the only privately-run university in North Korea. More than 500 North Koreans are studying at the university in the fields of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Foreign Languages, and International Finance and Management. The current COVID-19 pandemic led to a closure of the North Korean border. Many international projects in the country are on hold and the projects of the HSF Korea in North Korea cannot take place at the moment. The PUST is also facing difficulties due to the pandemic. The concept of foreign professors and lectures teaching at the university has become more difficult in times of closed boarders. Professor Park Chang-Mo and Dr. Bernhard Seliger had the chance to exchange experience of working in North Korea and perspectives about the future of international exchange and cooperation. They talked about the future work in North Korea, the impact of COVID-19 on the international academic cooperation and thoughts on the current political situation. The meeting was very interesting and opened up other perspective on peaceful development on the Korean peninsula.
Meeting with Korea Maritime Institute
On the 2nd of March Dr Jung-Ho Nam Dr Keunhyung Yook from Korea Maritime Institute (KMI) visited the HSF Korea. The KMI is a government-funded research institute established under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office to contribute to the formulation of national policies in maritime and fisheries affairs to boost the national economy. The institutes conducts research on coastal areas, coastal disasters, inter-Korean marine cooperation, marine ecosystems, responses to climate change and other related topics. Furthermore, the institute supports international negotiations on marine policies and realizes cooperation projects with international organizations and overseas research institutes. The HSF Korea works together with KMI in order to conserve the West Sea and share the information on-going conservation projects in relation to the Korean Peninsula. During the meeting with Mr. Felix Glenk, Project manager at HSF, and Dr Hyun-Ah Choi, Senior Researcher at the HSF, both partners had the possibility to discuss future cooperation.