Kim Yeoncheol, Director of the Hankyoreh Peace Institute (http://koreahana.net/sub05_01_1.htm), writes, “If the government misses the time to engage the North, it will only be more time consuming and expensive to compensate later… The government should think about its long term future… The tension in the inter-Korean relationship is becoming more intense. If we don’t act now there will be only more regret for the wasted time and lost opportunities in the future.”

Liao Ran and Chen Ke, students at Solbridge International School of Business in Daejeon, Korea, write, “Although the ultimate impact of the Daejeon Green Growth Forum’s efforts has yet to be seen, it is a tribute to Korea’s capacity for innovation that this environmental forum has come to play such a central role within less than a year of its establishment.”

Suk Hi Kim, Editor of North Korean Review (www.northkoreanreview.com), writes, “PUST is North Korea’s first institution of higher education founded, operated, and funded by associations and people outside the country… PUST plans to train talented young North Korean people in the fields of information and communication technology, industrial management, agriculture, food and life science, architecture, joinery and construction, and public health. The major challenge that faces the university is related to maintaining its financial resources.”

Sun-won Park, Visiting Fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, writes, “Policy coordination between Washington and Seoul is essential in order to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea, diplomatic normalization between the U.S. and the DPRK, and the establishment of a peace arrangement through talks between the directly related parties. But the notion of policy coordination must not be used as a certain party’s justification for sabotaging cooperation with the new U.S. plan for the Korean peninsula.”