(Yonhap Interview) U.S. professor says building trust, knowledge key to solving N. Korea issues

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By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, June 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea continues to frustrate the world by
refusing denuclearization talks and conducting more nuclear and missile tests,
but Prof. Stuart Thorson of Syracuse University in New York says this is all the
more reason to build a foundation of trust with the hermit nation.
"It becomes important to find a common ground in a situation where there have
been a lot of suspicion and demonization between the United States and North
Korea," Thorson, who is visiting Seoul to promote a new academic institution on
Korea, said in an interview Friday with Yonhap News Agency. "It is important to
work on problems together and also have arguments together so we can work through
those disagreements."
"A trusted relationship is where you have the empathy to understand even when the
other side does not act the way you want," added the political science professor
from Syracuse's Maxwell School. "Personally, I think that is the biggest success
of our project: that we built an empathetic, trusting relationship with North
Korea."
Syracuse University initiated a science engagement with North Korea's Kim Chaek
University of Technology in 2001 and has since exchanged science experts with the
North 12 times. It also helped build and operate the first digital library in
North Korea.
Now, hoping to promote a better understanding of Korean affairs and stimulate
collaboration, the Maxwell School is planning to launch the Korean Peninsula
Affairs Center in New York by September.
"One of the things that makes our center unusual is that it focuses on the entire
Korean Peninsula, not just South or North Korea," said Thorson. "That is possible
for us because we've had a longstanding research relationship with universities
and government officials (in both nations)."
Korea has long been important to Syracuse, which graduated its first Korean
students in 1941 and still sees a sizable number of students from the South, many
drawn by the Maxwell School, America's top ranked graduate school of public
affairs.
A Korean-American businessman and Syracuse each donated US$1 million to the
center, and organizers are searching for a counterpart in Korea willing to
contribute. The first donation by the businessman was a challenge gift in which
he requested a match of $1 million from the school and Korea, Thorson said.
Despite nearly a decade of working together, the academic relationship between
Syracuse and Pyongyang is still complicated by political issues, Thorson said.
The volatile North Korea-U.S. ties were most recently set back by Pyongyang's
second nuclear test last month, following a long-range rocket launch believed by
the U.S. and its allies to be a disguised missile test.
Humanitarian or educational exchange is often used to signal pleasure or
displeasure with the state of political relations, leaving the Syracuse project
highly vulnerable.
Such reflexes are also delaying a trip by the American Association for the
Advancement of Sciences -- to be led by its president, Peter Agre, a Nobel
laureate in chemistry -- meant to pave the way for the sharing of numerous
scholarly databases. Such a collaboration could help North Korea feed its 24
million people by improving its agriculture.
"One of the things we hope to do is to bring academics and policymakers together
to encourage a more thoughtful approach toward problems on the Korean Peninsula,"
he said. "Science engagement is very important and there is a need to
depoliticize this."
"The current status has slowed things down, but we are hopeful that we'll be able
to have another exchange in the next 12 months or so," he added. "I believe the
plans will actualize when the right time comes as all parties are interested in
continuing this relationship."
Thorson emphasized Syracuse does not "pay for play" with North Korea, calling the
relationship strictly mutual.
"We do not pay the North Koreans to engage with us. These are truly exchanges
where both parties have a commitment and investment in the exchange," he said.
There is zero possibility the exchanged science technologies could be used
towards Pyongyang's nuclear development, Thorson said.
"The U.S. has a very strong export control regime and there are very few items of
technology that can be transferred to DPR Korea," he said, calling North Korea by
its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"The only information technology we deal with regard to the DPRK is open-source
technology, available freely on the Internet. We want to stay very much away from
transferring technology under controls."
Having visited North Korea three times, Thorson, a lover of food from both
Koreas, said people from the South and the North are very much akin.
"Many of the values I see here, I also see in North Korea," he said. "Perhaps
because of the Confucian past, North Koreans, just as South Koreans, value
sincerity and are very responsive and loyal. They are willing to trust once the
trust is earned."
hayney@yna.co.kr
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