Twelve North Koreans, six of whom are economy professors and the rest ‘coming’ forces in Pyongyang’s administration are currently in Hanoi learning how a market economy works.
The course, which ends this week, is set up by the Stockholm School of Economics’ Asian branches and led by senior Swedish academics.
When Sweden helped facilitate the then US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright’s icebreaking visit to North Korea in the fall of 2000, discussions about senior education came up with representatives from Sweden and the Stockholm School of Economics.
The year after, in October 2001, a high ranking North Korean delegation visited Sweden, hosted by The European Institute of Japanese Studies at the Stockholm School of Economics.
That visit, which comprised company meetings as well as many encounters with top Swedish academic and government officials, and further talks are factors that finally made the historic course in Hanoi possible.
