Three years into the pandemic, Choson Exchange thrives with online programmes in North Korea
When my friend Julian told me about this trip to North Korea (DPRK), I was directly interested as I have a peculiar passion for special places, and the implications of the politics of such places for people’s lives. What a better place to indulge such a passion than the DPRK? It’s a secluded country about which a lot has been written and said… but very few people actually know what is going on there. This was a perfect occasion into which I rushed as quickly as I could!
While Pyongyang remains the most glitzy and booming city in North Korea, Pyongsong has emerged as one of the country’s most important trading hubs. It’s also home to a growing community of ambitious entrepreneurs. So when the latest group of CE volunteers arrived in the DPRK earlier this month, there was a sense of excitement — and a room full of North Koreans who were eager to show the progress they had made over the past year.
For some of the workshop leaders on our March trip to Pyongyang, things turned out to be particularly challenging: In a country where elevators are extremely slow and often get stuck, the point of a quick “elevator pitch” isn’t immediately apparent. So when the North Korean audience pitched the business ideas they had developed during the training, 3 minutes often turned into 5, 10, or 15...
