Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07SHENYANG216
2007-11-19 07:58:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Shenyang
Cable title:  

PYONGYANG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Tags:  PREF PREL PINR KWMN KN KS CH SPILL 
pdf how-to read a cable
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RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
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ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 190758Z NOV 07
FM AMCONSUL SHENYANG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8252
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 1769
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC 0052
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHENYANG 000216 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/CM, EAP/K, PRM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10 YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION
TAGS: PREF PREL PINR KWMN KN KS CH SPILL
SUBJECT: PYONGYANG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
VIEWS APRIL 2008 OPENING

REF: (A) SHENYANG 115 (B) SHENYANG 79 (C) 06 SHENYANG
74 (D) 06 SEOUL 1519

Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN. REASONS: 1.4(b)/(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHENYANG 000216

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/CM, EAP/K, PRM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10 YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION
TAGS: PREF PREL PINR KWMN KN KS CH SPILL
SUBJECT: PYONGYANG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
VIEWS APRIL 2008 OPENING

REF: (A) SHENYANG 115 (B) SHENYANG 79 (C) 06 SHENYANG
74 (D) 06 SEOUL 1519

Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN. REASONS: 1.4(b)/(d).


1. (C) Summary: Yanbian University of Science and Technology
(YUST) President and Pyongyang University of Science and
Technology (PUST) founding President Dr. Kim Chin Kyong, PUST
Executive Vice President David Kim, and YUST Director Norma
Nichols provided updates on PUST construction progress and
its planned opening date in several late-October, early
November 2007 meetings with CG and Conoffs, in Yanji and most
recently, in Shenyang President Kim also discussed his
assistance to orphanages in North Korea, his support for
North Korean refugees in China, and his efforts to help North
Korean refugees willing to repatriate. End Summary.

PUST planning to open for business in April 2008
-------------- ---


2. (C) Freshly returned from multiple trips to Pyongyang to
inspect the final phase of construction of the PUST core
campus buildings and to meet with North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il (Kim, Chong-il),PUST President Kim was eager to
share news of his plans to formally open his Pyongyang campus
in April 2008. According to Kim, construction of 14 PUST
buildings, including the IT building, a student dormitory,
guest house, cafeteria and the power-supply building would be
complete by late-November 2007. Kim expressed full
confidence that from early December 2007 to the anticipated
opening of PUST in April 2008, North Korean technicians and
construction workers could outfit existing campus facilities
with the necessary equipment, the North Korean government
would select North Korean students and local staffing for
PUST, and Kim and his staff would finalize pro-bono contracts
with international instructors and find financial support to
cover operating expenses for the first semester and beyond.


3. (C) Dr. Kim presented a photo display of the various

construction projects, which Econoff had a chance to look at
more closely. Dr. Kim pointed out that, while the design of
the buildings and grounds is modern enough, construction
methods are quite primitive, and all of the labor is being
done by North Korean soldiers. The photos indicated that
manual equipment was being used to mix cement and to pave
roads within the campus. The photo also showed a makeshift
bakery that produces bread to feed the workers, whom Dr. Kim
said were issued two large cakes of bread each day.


4. (C) While the photos indicated that the construction was
moving along well, quality problems were readily visible.
Windows, doors and walls were out of plumb and many floors
appeared to slope randomly. Most scaffolding was constructed
using unfinished poles and rope. The only exception seemed
to be the modern steel scaffolding being used in the
construction of the monument outside the Administration
Building's main entrance.

PUST Curriculum, Enrollment and Staffing
--------------


5. (C) Dr. Kim told us that, while in the long-term PUST
planned to evolve into a graduate and undergraduate
institution, initially PUST would offer only graduate-level
courses that, per Kim Jong-ilQ,s direction, must be taught
exclusively in English. The programs of study available in
April 2008 will be Business Administration, Agriculture, Food
Engineering, Health (Nursing) and Architecture. Enrollment
will be strictly limited to graduate-level North Korean
students being groomed as future government leaders. Dr. Kim
expected the ratio of international to local staff would be
1:1 and claimed that Kim Jong-il had agreed contractually
that Dr. Kim could select whatever staff he wanted, granting
the PUST President wide control over the lecture content
along with other concessions, such as full internet access
for all of PUSTQ,s North Korean students. In a late October
meeting, however, Dr. Kim said Kim Jong-il had indicated
that, while he and his inner circle were fully supportive of
PUST, much of the DPRK government (namely, the military
leadership) was very concerned about PUST and its strong
South Korean bent. As such, Kim Jong-il reportedly asked Dr.
Kim to make a concerted effort to recruit primarily
Q&western,Q8 vice South Korean, staff.


6. (C) Mr. Gary Alan Spanovich, an urban planning consultant
from Canby, Oregon, who is traveling with the group, told
Econoff that the Portland-based Wholistic Peace Institute, of

SHENYANG 00000216 002 OF 003


which he is Executive Director, would sponsor a Nobel
Laureate Peace Chair at both YUST and PUST, as well as a
similar Chair at the University of Portland. He said the
Institute plans to have former South Korean President Kim Dae
Jung arrive at PUST to participate in the opening ceremonies
and then to be the first Nobel Peace Laureate in Residence,
remaining at PUST for a period of four weeks. He said the
Institute would host the former President Kim in Portland for
the launch of his forthcoming book, just prior to his
departure for North Korea. Spanovich said the Institute is
also having talks with the Dalai Lama to have the Dalai Lama
occupy the Chair at the University of Portland.

PUST funding woes
--------------


7. (C) While Dr. Kim expressed little doubt that he could
fulfill all of Kim Jong-ilQ,s requests, two close aides, Dr.
David Kim and Norma Nichols, were less optimistic about
meeting the letter all of the leader's demands. First, they
expressed their doubts about the ability of North Korean
students to follow English-only, graduate-level lectures and
to produce graduate-level, English-language research papers.
Second, while Kim and Nichols were both confident they could
enlist a full staff of primarily western, vice South Korean,
staff for at least the first semester, they said they would
face serious staffing difficulties beginning in the second
semester if they could not recruit in greater numbers from
South Korea, where many academics were willing to teach at
PUST for free but are not comfortable teaching in English.
Finally, both Kim and Nichols were very concerned that,
without charging any tuition, room and board, and without
financial support from Pyongyang for the foreseeable future,
PUST would soon find itself in major financial difficulty.
In an aside, Nichols stressed that although President Kim was
quick to highlight PUSTQ,s partnership with Rice University,
that institution provided no financial support; PUST was
therefore desperately looking for new University partnerships
and ways to finance PUSTQ,s operations over the longer term.

Refugee assistance
--------------


8. (C) President Kim also provided a thumbnail sketch of his
efforts to provide assistance to approximately 23,000 orphans
in the DPRK (mostly in the Najin-Sonbong or Nason area) and
his ongoing support for elderly and infirm DPRK refugees in
China. The latter, he said, were cared for by his wife in
apartments in Yanji. He stated, however, that over the past
seven years he focused his efforts almost exclusively on
converting some 100-200 newly arrived refugees each month to
Christianity and providing them financial support (usually
RMB 800) if these refugees would return to North Korea.
Opining that the RMB 800 amount was sufficient to feed a
family of five for one year in North Korea, Kim added that,
not only was the Yanji Public Security Bureau (YPSB) fully
aware of his programs, both to assist infirm refugees and to
repatriate the others, but the YPSB also posed no objections
to either program and in fact appeared supportive. He
speculated that one reason the Yanji authorities were so
willing to tolerate his activities was because their children
often attended YUST, which has a stellar placement record for
its graduates.

Comment
--------------


9. (C) As he has shown during past encounters over many
years, Dr. Kim continues to be a disarming interlocutor whose
deep convictions tend to color his direct personal
experiences. (One measure of his idealism and naivetQ is that
Dr. KimQ,s latest Shenyang visit was to promote a USD
500-million world trade center project in Shenyang Q)
together with the World Trade Center Association of New York
Q) without knowing how much trade and investment occurred in
Shenyang relative to the much more advanced Dalian.) He is
nonetheless a compelling leader who, by his own admission,
survived torture and interrogation in Pyongyang and, with
Chinese help, convinced Kim Jong-Il to endorse the PUST
project. Dr. Kim was coy about the number of meetings he has
had with the North Korean leader, telling us at one point
that his former captors threatened him with severe
consequences if he told the outside world about his meetings
with the dictator. He implied, however, that he sees Kim
Jong-il almost every time he visits Pyongyang, including
during the just-completed visits in November. He also
repeated claims that Kim Jong-il suffers from a number of

SHENYANG 00000216 003 OF 003


physical ailments; that the leader garners very little of the
respect accorded to his father, Kim Il Song; and that it will
therefore be extremely difficult if not impossible for Kim
Jong-il to transfer power to his heirs.









WICKMAN