|
By Sharon Omahen
somahen@griffin.peachnet.edu
UGA agricultural scientists made history last month as the first academic delegation to visit North Korea since the country closed its doors during the Korean War.
 |
 |
A delegation from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences visited North Korea on a four-day trip that ended Oct. 30. The group included Gale Buchanan, dean and director of the college; 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 host for the group’s visit was the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, which serves as intermediaries between North Korea and the Western world.
“This trip was a reciprocal visit from a meeting we had with a North Korean agricultural delegation a couple of years ago,” Buchanan says. “During that first visit, they invited us to come to North Korea. It took some time to plan, but this was an opportunity for us to visit on their turf.”
North Korea’s “turf” is in turmoil now as the country deals with widespread 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 says. “On this trip, we took some of our scientists who have the best knowledge in these areas.”
Buchanan’s team of scientists planned 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 Georgia,” Buchanan says.
Helping North Korea succeed could be beneficial to producers in Georgia and the United States, Buchanan says. “We would like to see that country--as well as all countries--prosper, because then they become traders,” he says. “The United States has things we’d like to sell, barter and trade. It’s a two-way street.”
Kanemasu hoped to 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 says. “I think the time is also right for us to develop relationships. We have a lot of information and germ plasm, and other countries do as well. It’s best for everyone that we open up interactions between our countries.”
University of Georgia faculty were not the only Americans in North Korea during the week of their visit, Kanemasu points out. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was there at the same time.
While they were in North Korea, the UGA delegation visited several universities as well as agricultural sites and production areas. “Face-to-face meetings are necessary to gain confidence and provide a basis for developing further relationships,” says Kanemasu.
Buchanan is hopeful the UGA visit will be the first of many and the beginning of a mutually beneficial partnership.
“This first trip was more to explore than anything else,” Buchanan says. “But if things continue to thaw, I can see more definitive delegations in the future.” |
|
