Master’s program for South and North Korean students opens in Germany

A master’s degree course for both South and North Korean graduate students is going to open for the first time in a foreign university.

“A new master’s program dedicated to tropical forest research has been established for the graduate students from the two Koreas” Dresden University of Technology President Hans Muller-Steinhagen said at an interview with the Dong-A Ilbo in Seoul on Tuesday. "The school plans to accept at least five students from each South and North Korea." He accompanied German President Joachim Gauck as one of his entourage during his visit to South Korea.

The initiative for the new education program gained traction when President Park Geun-hye made her speech for peaceful unification on the Korean Peninsula at the German university last year, which was called the “Dresden Declaration.” “We sounded out North Korea’s intention to participate in the education program through a South Korean NGO named Peace Korea. As the semester begins in September in Germany, the master’s program may well be open starting in fall next year,” said the school president. If North Korea students actually take this program, it will mark the first case of inter-Korean cooperation in the field of science and technology.

Kim Do-yeon, the president of Pohang University of Science and Technology in Korea, played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for the inter-Korean cooperation. “In making preparations for unification, the exchanges between young students are more important than anything else,” Kim said. "I have shared my understanding about such conviction with Honorary President Park Chan-mo of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology."

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