North Korean farmers look on from a trailer in the northeastern North Korean town of Sinuiju in this file photo. (Photo by
WANG ZHAO/AFP)
The leaders of the only private university in North Korea has asked Texas A&M University, known for its agricultural economics and public health programs, for help in teaching subjects such as how to grow food in a land of chronic shortages.
The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology was founded by evangelical Christians and opened in 2010, with students generally the children of the country's elite.
The PUST delegation said the requested help is not about politics but about using academics for humanitarian ideals, Reuters reported.
"It just tugs at the heartstrings when people realize that there are these people who are struggling to get the food that they need," said Norma Nichols, director of international academic affairs for the university in the North Korean capital.
North Korea's centrally planned rationing system never recovered from a famine in the 1990s.
The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, with a volunteer faculty mostly of evangelical Christians, has a curriculum that includes subjects once considered taboo in North Korea, such as capitalism. The college is an unlikely fit in a country that has been condemned by the U.S. State Department for cracking down on freedom of religion.
But at times, the reclusive state allows help, especially when someone else picks up the tab for an expensive project the country's leadership feels is not undermining the state.
The delegation is seeking help from about 10 U.S. universities on topics such as food security and improving nutrition.
Nichols said the other U.S. schools have asked to keep their names private.