Engage Korea: A conference aiming to support peace-building on the peninsula | NK News - North Korea News
Engage Korea: A conference aiming to support peace-building on the peninsula
Conference organizers explain rationale for approach to Korean engagement
Chad O'Carroll
November 3rd, 2015
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Engage Korea, a student-driven conference series that seeks to “re-frame engagement with the DPRK,” has since 2013 hosted annual events and online curricula related to humanitarian and educational involvement with the DPRK.
Seeking to “cultivate a global network of students, junior scholars, and practitioners who are well-informed about the DPRK, thereby creating a sustained effort for peace-building on the Korean Peninsula,” the conference series is, however, notable for not inviting official North or South Korean participation, avoiding topics directly related to human rights, while conducting proceedings in a strictly off-record setting.
If such important topic is left off the table, key stakeholders are left uninvited, and proceedings must be conducted in private, how then can the conference’s efforts really hope to achieve their stated goals?
To find out more and learn about Engage Korea’s forthcoming December event, NK News spoke to Sherri L. Ter Molen, Public Relations Manager of the event series.
Medical cooperation is one area highlighted as a realm in which engagement can work | Picture: Eric Lafforgue
What is the overall purpose of the conference?
Engage Korea is a student-driven humanitarian and educational initiative on the DPRK. Our vision is to cultivate a global network of students, junior scholars, and practitioners who are well-informed about North Korea, thereby creating a sustained effort for peace-building on the Korean Peninsula. We do not follow any political agenda, striving to be impartial, constructive, and informative. We have previously held Engage Korea 2013 at Oxford University, provided educational consulting for the 2014 Student Conference on the DPRK at Harvard University, and administered an online short course on DPRK healthcare in the summer of 2015. Engage Korea 2015 at the University of Cambridge is an extension of these efforts wherein we focus on sharing knowledge with North Korea in areas such as development, healthcare, education, and culture.
What is the history of the conference? How did it start and why?
Engage Korea was conceptualized with the aim of educating emerging scholars about North Korea in a manner that fostered critical constructive thinking and engendered confidence for the purpose of bringing about meaningful change on the Korean peninsula. In an effort to prepare and empower the next generation, the organizers of Engage Korea sought to invite seasoned professionals who had experience working for diplomatic missions and institutions who could share their firsthand experiences with students as well as junior scholars and practitioners in an effort to prepare and empower them for peace-building and humanitarian endeavors. To this end, speakers at Engage Korea 2013 included Ambassador Karen Wolstenholme who was the UK ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 2011-2012 and Keun-wook Paik who is a senior research fellow at The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and an associate fellow of Energy, Environment and Resources at Chatham House. Students also contributed by presenting papers during discussion sessions, and the conversations that resulted from this intermingling of knowledge derived from lived experience and academic research was so encouraging that the organizers decided to offer similar opportunities for dialog in the future.
Does the conference receive any institutional support? If so in what form and from whom?
Engage Korea is an independent organization, not affiliated with a particular institution. However, each of our programs has received institutional support from various organizations. Engage Korea 2013 was sponsored by the Lotte Scholarship Foundation, the Anglo-Korean Society, and Green Templeton College. Engage Korea provided educational and logistical consulting for The 2014 Student Conference on the DPRK, which was the result of a year-long collaboration between Harvard Medical School Students for Global Health and the Harvard Kennedy School DPRK Study Group. This conference was supported by the Korean American Medical Association Global Outreach Program, the “Beyond the Korean War” project at the University of Cambridge, the World Korean Medical Organization Global Outreach Program, the Harvard Asia Center, and the Council of Korean Americans. Our online short course on DPRK healthcare in the summer of 2015 was co-organized by the Korean American Medical Association Global Outreach Program, and Engage Korea 2015 is made possible by the support of the Academy of Korean Studies, the British Korea Society, the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge as well as the North Asian Borders Network, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which is also based at the University of Cambridge.
Can engagement authorized by the DPRK state really stimulate positive changes in the country? Or isn’t it the case that – as Jang Jing-sun suggests – engagement can only be effective if it’s done in ways that bypass state-level participation?
As an organization, we understand that, at the current time, the North Korean government must authorize any group that hopes to initiate projects within the DPRK. We understand the complexities of the arguments surrounding this necessity, both technically and ethically, but we have also seen that these relationships can be productive. The European Union, for example, has been successful in providing water sanitation and agricultural support, and the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, which is based in Nepal, has trained North Korean doctors on surgical procedures and has performed more than 700 cataract surgeries at the request of the North Korean government. These are the kinds of projects that are of interest to members of the Engage Korea network, and as an organization, we are emboldened by their progress.
Why is the event off the record?
Engage Korea 2015 will aim to provide a space where free and open discussions can occur. Many of our speakers have and continue to work for educational and humanitarian organizations that operate in North Korea with the consent of its government. In order to be sensitive to the unique nature of these relationships and with the hope that these types of engagements will continue, Engage Korea 2015 asks that the media abstain from covering the conference itself.
Are North Korean representatives invited to participate in this event, please explain why they have been / why they have not been?
In order to achieve, what one of my colleagues recently described as an “objective terrain for discussion,” Engage Korea 2015 has not included representatives from organizations that could possibly stifle the equitable exchange of ideas to take part within the formal conference program. Instead, we have invited Kee Park, an external engagement fellow at the Korean American Medical Association, and Colin McCulloch, a professor of management and economics at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. Representatives from DULA, the organization that arranged the North Korean Youth Para-Ensemble Concert Tour 2015, will also deliver a presentation. North and South Koreans as well as any other students, junior scholars, or practitioners interested in engagement are certainly welcome to attend.
Why is human rights not directly on the conference agenda (I get this impression from reading the conference PDF invitation)?
There are many other organizations that hold symposia on human rights. There are far fewer that discuss ways to bring Korean-speaking doctors from the west to Pyongyang to help train North Korean doctors on modern procedures and that present programs on teaching North Koreans about entrepreneurial business practices. Engage Korea 2015 will provide a venue for such conversations and will highlight the efforts of the people and organizations that are already working to bring these kinds of opportunities to the North Korean people.
Can engagement be compatible with directly addressing human rights concerns in North Korea, or is it more effective when limited to improving humanitarian conditions?
Engage Korea believes that engagement and addressing human rights concerns are compatible, particularly when the aims of endeavors are to improve living conditions through social and economic programs. Human rights, however, is a politically-charged and polarizing term, making it difficult for agencies that advocate for human rights to form constructive relationships with North Korean institutions. Because much of Engage Korea’s focus is on affairs such as training programs and cultural exchanges, we believe that it is prudent to adopt more peace-minded and balanced views of North Korean affairs in the context of East Asia and the world and to form relationships that promote trust and foster interaction. We further believe that when external agencies partner with their North Korean counterparts to accomplish shared goals such as delivering provisions as part of an aid program mutual trust is built since the parties participate in problem-solving together. As working relationships flourish, the breadth of topics that these individuals can discuss may expand, new ideas and outside knowledge may be introduced, and real collaborations may form. There will certainly be disagreements and misunderstandings between the North Korean and foreign representatives, but we believe that the insights gained by overcoming these challenges will be extraordinarily valuable as the international community pursues opportunities for state-level engagements on the path to peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Can you explain the purpose and goals of the online classes associated with Engage Korea?
Engage Korea offered our first Online Educational Course on the DPRK in the summer of 2015. The topic was “DPRK Healthcare,” and it was co-organized with the Korean American Medical Association Global Outreach Program. It was open to graduate students, medical students, and practitioners from existing NGOs along with other interested parties. Topics included an introduction and broad overview of DPRK healthcare, engaging the DPRK on medical education, and North Korean cultural sensitivities as well as travel to the DPRK. The goal of the class and the series overall is to bring the types of conversations we have at our conferences in regards to specific initiatives in areas such as healthcare to a more globally dispersed audience who may not have the opportunity to attend one of our conferences in person.
What is the main difference about this year’s event to previous ones?
Since our first conference, we have been able to connect with additional representatives from academic programs, government agencies, NGOs, think tanks, and other organizations so that we are able to bring new voices to each of our programs. Engage Korea 2015 will feature a plenary on Tumen River development, which is the result of a collaboration between Engage Korea and the Economic and Social Research Council-funded North Asian Borders project and the Academy of Korean Studies-funded Beyond the Korean War project. After the plenary sessions on development, healthcare, and education/culture and in the tradition of our past undertakings, attendees will break out into discussion groups during which invited students will present their own research. The groups will share ideas generated during these sessions when they reconvene at a final plenary. In addition, YES, WE LOVE THIS COUNTRY!, a documentary that highlights Morten Traavik’s cultural engagement work, will be screened. This will be the first documentary screening at an Engage Korea event, and we look forward to presenting this special cultural program. Engage Korea 2015 will offer a variety of speakers, topics, and opinions that will surely appeal to anyone with a vested interest in the Korean peninsula.
How can readers learn more or make arrangements to attend the event?
Engage Korea 2015 will take place at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge on Saturday, December 12, 2015. Information about our organization and our upcoming conference can be found on our website at: www.engagekorea.org, and students, scholars, and practitioners interested in attending can register through Eventbrite at: http://bit.do/EngageKorea2015.
Featured Image: Old flag, new clothes - May 1 in North Korea by Eric Lafforgue on 2010-05-01 16:20:57
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chad O'Carroll
Chad O'Carroll has written on North Korea since 2010 and writes between London and Seoul.READ MORE ARTICLES
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