Press Release

• To: Education reporter at a media outlet
• Inquiries: PR Team Leader Park Soon-bong (02)3399-3807
  Media Contact: Ha Hong-jun (02)3399-3810
• Date Sent: 2018.11.9.  Release Date: Please release immediately.

– Address: (01795) 815 Hwarang-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul
– Main Phone: (02)3399-3810
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Sahmyook University Signs MOU for Mutual Cooperation with North Korea’s Pyongyang University of Science and Technology

Sahmyook University (President Kim Seong-ik) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for mutual cooperation with Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (President Jeon Yu-taek) on the morning of the 9th in the small conference room of the Centennial Memorial Hall on campus.

Under the agreement signed that day, the two universities decided to hold joint research and joint academic conferences, and, in preparation for smoother inter-Korean exchanges in the future, to establish cooperation measures in areas such as △student exchanges and mutual credit recognition △exchanges among professors and faculty △use of university facilities △exchange of academic materials and publications.

Sahmyook University places great significance on this agreement in that it is the first official and direct memorandum of understanding with a North Korean institution. As Sahmyook University, an “exiled (離散) university” that opened in 1906 in Sunan, Pyeongannam-do, it expects to be able to further concretize the long-cherished educational exchange and cooperation with North Korea.

Sahmyook University plans to first review a plan to dispatch foreign professors (non-Korean nationals) in each major field in the form of visiting professors. Since PUST conducts all classes in English, and if the purpose of the visit is clear and distinct, foreigners can enter and leave North Korea relatively freely, this is expected to be the most realistic cooperation plan.

To this end, President Kim Seong-ik and Dean Kim Pil-ju of PUST’s College of Agricultural Life Sciences held a separate meeting after the signing ceremony that day and discussed comprehensively practical measures for exchange and cooperation between the two schools.

President Kim Seong-ik stated, “PUST is not large in scale, with about 500 students, but I believe its influence plays a role equivalent to 5,000 or even 50,000 people,” adding, “We will seek ways to help at the university level in any way possible.”

Dean Kim Pil-ju of PUST said, “There have been many difficulties in operating the school, but we have overcome them with help from various sectors and have carried on. Recently, inter-Korean relations have been improving, and I hope that through this agreement both schools will develop together.”

Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is a specialized science and engineering university jointly established in 2010 by the Northeast Asia Education and Culture Cooperation Foundation, an incorporated association in Korea, and North Korea’s Ministry of Education. Located in Seungni-dong, Nangnang District, Pyongyang, about 550 students (including graduate students) are studying in departments such as Electrical Engineering (computer, communications, and industrial automation), Agricultural Life Sciences, International Finance and Business Administration, and the College of Medicine. (End.)