A little good sense – Japanese and North Korean students make friends

Japanese and North Korean students forge bonds in rare meeting but remain apart over nuclear weapons, Japan Times, BY NATSUME WATANABE. 18 Oct 16 KYODO PYONGYANG – A group of Japanese college students made a rare visit to Pyongyang in late August — just before North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9 — for talks on war and peace with local students.

But three days of social exchanges and intense discussions left the groups at odds on issues such as how best to achieve world peace and whether nuclear disarmament is feasible……..

The student-to-student program was initiated in 2012 by a group of Japanese nongovernmental organizations. Among them was Tokyo-based Relief Campaign Committee for Children, Japan, which conducts cultural exchanges.

Participants in the annual program have gradually become able to take up political issues over the years, organizers said, despite the isolated communist regime’s strict controls on speech.

Jinguji was one of eight Japanese students who took part in this year’s program. The 11 North Koreans were all in their early 20s and majoring in Japanese language at the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies……..

On the morning when the Japanese students were to return home, tears could be seen in the eyes of some of the North Korean students.

“I know that our current bilateral relations aren’t good, but I want to see you all again,” one North Korean student said upon departure at the airport. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/10/18/national/politics-diplomacy/japanese-north-korean-students-forge-bonds-rare-meeting-remain-apart-nuclear-weapons/#.WAaWA-V97Gg

October 19, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health