More than 150 South Korean and foreign scholars who study North Korea will gather here next week for an unprecedented international forum on academic approaches toward the communist nation, the organizing committee said Thursday.
The inaugural World Conference on North Korean Studies is scheduled to open at Seoul’s Yonsei University on Tuesday for a two-day run. It is the first time that such a large-scale international forum specializing in North Korea studies is being held, according to the committee.
It will draw 110 South Korean pundits and 40 others from 16 foreign countries. They include Wada Haruki, an emeritus professor of Tokyo University, Zhao Huji, a professor at Central Party School of China, and James Person, a senior program associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
The forum is designed to review the history of academic research of North Korea and discuss its prospects.
“We believe this meeting will become a new turning point for North Korean Studies, broadening its academic scope to help better understand North Korea,” said Park Jong-chul, chairman of the organizing committee.
It has a very important meaning as a first official step to stimulate the international activities for North Korean Studies by opening up numerous panel sessions with the various topics including national security, politics, history, culture, society, gender issues, health, arts, he added. (Yonhap)
