University of Georgia agricultural scientists are making
history
this week. They are the first academic delegation to visit
North Korea since the country closed its doors during the Korean
War.
A delegation from UGA’s College of Agricultural and
Environmental
Sciences is visiting North Korea on a four-day trip that ends
Oct. 30. The group includes Gale Buchanan, UGA CAES dean and
director; Ed Kanemasu, coordinator of the college’s
International Programs; Han Park, director of UGA’s Center
for the Study of Global Issues; poultry scientist Nick Dale; and
horticulturists Stanley Kays and S.K. Hahn;.
The group is being hosted by the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee,
which serves as intermediaries between North Korea and the
Western
world.
“This trip is a reciprocal visit from a meeting we had
with a North Korean agricultural delegation a couple of years
ago,” Buchanan said. “During that first visit, they
invited us to come to North Korea. It’s taken some time to plan,
but this will be an opportunity for us to visit on their
turf.”
Famine, Drought and
Flooding
North Korea’s “turf” is in turmoil now as the country deals
with wide-spread famine, drought and flooding. Buchanan hopes
the university delegation can eventually work with agricultural
scientists in North Korea to help solve some of these
problems.
“Agriculture provides the basis for any society because
you’ve got to feed people before you can do anything,” he
said. “On this trip, we are taking some of our scientists
who have the best knowledge in these areas.”
Buchanan’s team of scientists plans to talk with the North
Korean delegation about areas of mutual interest.
“We put together our delegation based on the kinds of
things they seemed to be most interested in when they came to
the Georgia,” Buchanan said.
Helping North Korea succeed could be beneficial to producers
in Georgia and the United States, Buchanan said.
Trading Goods and People
“Another side of this visit is we would like to see that
country, as well as all countries, prosper, because then they
become
traders,” he said. “The United States has things we’d
like to sell, barter and trade. It’s a two-way street.”
Kanemasu hopes this trip will open doors to an exchange
program for scientists.
“We hope to develop an agreement in which there would
be an exchange of faculty between our college and the Academy
of Agricultural Sciences in North Korea,” he said. “I
think the time is also right for us to develop relationships.
We have a lot of information and germplasm, and other countries
do as well. It’s best for everyone that we open up interactions
between our countries.”
The UGA delegation won’t be the only Americans in North Korea
this week.
America’s Leaders
Visiting Too
“Madeleine Albright (Secretary of State) will be there the
same time we are, and that shows exchange at very high levels;
the highest levels we have ever seen,” Kanemasu said.”
It would not surprise me if President Clinton goes to North Korea
before his term ends, as a final cap on the development
of these relationships.”
While in North Korea, the UGA
delegation plans to visit several universities as well as
agricultural
sites and production areas.
“Candidly, we don’t have
an agenda,” Kanemasu said. “It is a closed society and
we must realize that we are their guests, but we want to
accomplish
as much as possible, too. Face-to-face meetings are necessary
to gain confidence and provide a basis for developing further
relationships.”
Buchanan is hopeful the UGA visit will be the first of many
and the beginning of a mutually beneficial partnership.
“This first trip is more to explore than anything
else,” Buchanan said. “But if things continue to thaw, I can see
more definitive delegations in the future. But for now we’ve got
to start somewhere, and that’s what we’re doing.”
(Pete Konenkamp, UGA University Communications,
contributed to this article.)
