Politically, North Korea is isolated. Scientifically, less so. An active volcano and plans for a new observatory are showing how cooperative research works there (and where it doesn't).
The crater lake of Mount Paektu at the North Korean-Chinese border is interesting for astronomers and seismologists.Image: picture-alliance/dpa
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In July 2004 Richard Stone traveled to North Korea for the first time. Back then he was the editor of Science magazine, and as a US citizen and journalist, it was difficult for him to get a visa.
He got lucky.
Stone met North Korea's science attaché at the North Korean embassy in Russia and was invited for an official visit. And so he entered another world.
"The researchers worked in a kind of bubble," he says. "They couldn't attend conferences, couldn't discuss anything with other scientists outside North Korea. And their scientific literature consisted mainly of photocopies from western journals from before 1991."
Yet the science editor came across research projects with substance — even beyond nuclear weapons research.
The North Koreans, for example, probably succeeded quite early on in cloning rabbits.
"They showed me the rabbits, and they actually looked like the original," he says with a laugh. "But of course, they hadn't published the results in professional journals. So I just had to believe them."
'Dawn of a new era'
Scientifically, North Korea is now far less isolated than in the past.
"I've been there several times since 2004," Stone says, "and have seen the research community in North Korea open up to the world. The North Korean researchers now have better access to scientific literature, and the country has recognized that science depends on cooperation." Today, Stone's a member of the National Committee on North Korea, an NGO that promotes exchange between North Korea and the US.
There are so many examples of international collaboration with North Korea, in fact, that South Korea's science council speaks of the "dawn of a new era."
At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in February, one of their delegates, Hong-Jin Yang of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute in Daejeon, presented an ambitious plan: a joint observatory run by South and North Korea, and located on North Korean soil.
It's to be built on Mount Paektu, a mountain of about 2,700 meters (nearly 9,000 feet) on the Chinese border.
The crater lake of the volcano Mount Paektu, which last erupted in 1903Image: Richard Stone
"It's the highest and darkest mountain on the Korean peninsula, with very good visibility," Yang says.
In one sense, the conditions for such a project are good: In 2012 North Korea rejoined the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a worldwide association of astronomers based in Paris. The country had been excluded from the IAU in 1996 because it no longer paid membership fees.
Yet even as Hong-Jin Yang and his North Korean colleagues plan the joint observatory, they've never actually exchanged a word. South Koreans are forbidden from communicating directly with North Korea.
"We have to go through the South Korean Ministry of Reunification," Yang told DW. "The ministry will then convey our message to North Korea. It's not easy, and it's not fast."
Participants at the AAAS session on North Korea, where not a single North Korean was present.Image: NST (National Research Council of Science and Technology)
Stone describes his own difficulties. While he can communicate with North Korean researchers via email from the US, there are only group email accounts for entire institutes. "An answer doesn't come overnight," he says.
But Yang is optimistic that the political situation will continue to ease and that he will soon be able to travel to North Korea to meet his colleagues — at the latest, when the observatory is actually built.
Ambitious plans: The South Korean astronomer Hong-Jin Yang wants to advance an observatory in the north. Image: NST (National Research Council of Science and Technology)
Got a permit for that?
Nonetheless, researching in and with North Korea remains difficult. There is virtually no internet access in North Korea, Stone says, making it difficult to exchange data with partners. Due to sanctions against the country, a research mission also needs a lot of preparation, especially if the US is involved. "You have to convince the US government that the project is important and does not violate national interests," he says.
Also, anything the researchers want to introduce into the country, "from laptops to USB sticks," requires a permit from their home country. Stone and others are still waiting for permission for their volcano surveys planned for next summer.
That's because Mount Paektu is not only a favored location for an observatory — it's also an active volcano. Its eruption in 946, known as the millennium eruption, was, according to Stone, "one of the three largest volcanic eruptions in the last 10,000 years."
Since 2002 there have been more earthquakes at the former eruption site, and the mountain is measurably swollen, probably due to magma in its interior. Another major eruption would affect not only China, but also South Korea and even Japan, Stone says. "The volcano has hardly been studied. We don't even know why the volcano exists, because it's not on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where so many other large volcanoes are."
British researchers James Hammond and Clive Oppenheimer inspect ash layers from the Mount Paektu volcanic eruption Image: Richard Stone
At North Korea's request, Stone brought British volcanologists and seismologists into the country for the first time in 2011. In the following years, they installed several seismometers on the volcano to map the magma chambers inside. "We published the results," together with the North Korean scientists," says Stone. "They take part in the evaluation."
Stone is certain: Such joint projects only work with real cooperation — and not with Western researchers conducting the research and analysis work entirely on their own.
"There are high expectations that the meeting will go well and lead to a relaxation of sanctions," Stone says, "and that our work in North Korea may become a little easier in the future."
North Korea: Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's nuclear saga
North Korea's "rocket man" and America's "dotard" first threatened to fire nuclear weapons at each other. Then they wanted to talk peace, before Trump canceled. DW charts the major events in the Trump-Kim saga.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
January 2, 2017: Missile test imminent
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in his New Year’s address that his country was in the "final stages" of launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). US President-elect Donald Trump, whose inauguration was set for January 20, said on Twitter: "North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the US. It won't happen!"
Image: Getty Images/AFP/KNCA
July 4, 2017: North Korea's 'gift packages'
North Korea tested its first ICBM — the Hwasong-14 — on US Independence Day. Kim reportedly told his scientists that "the US would be displeased" by the launch. This, he said, was because "it was given a 'package of gifts' ... on its 'Independence Day.'" Trump wrote on Twitter in response: "North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?"
Image: Reuters/KCNA
July 28, 2017: US mainland threatened
Pyongyang tested its second Hwasong-14 weeks later. Experts estimated the new rocket could reach the US mainland. Trump lashed out at North Korean ally China, writing in a Tweet: "I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency
August 8, 2017: 'Fire and fury'
Trump appeared to threaten swift military action against Pyongyang when he told reporters: "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." North Korea responded by threatening to fire a medium-range ballistic missile into the waters around Guam, a US territory in the Pacific Ocean. It did not follow through.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Anderson
August 29, 2017: Japan rocket test
Pyongyang sparked international outcry when it test-launched a mid-range ballistic missile — the Hwasong-12 — over Japan. The UN Security Council unanimously condemned the test. Trump said in a White House statement: "Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/kyodo
September 3, 2017: Hydrogen bomb test
North Korea announced it had successfully tested its sixth nuclear weapon. Pyongyang said it was a powerful type of nuclear weapon called a hydrogen bomb and that it could be placed on top of a ballistic missile. Trump wrote on Twitter: "The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea."
Image: Reuters/KCNA
September 19, 2017: Threat to 'Rocket Man'
In his first speech at the United Nations, Trump called North Korea a "rogue state" and said Washington "will have no choice than to totally destroy North Korea" if Pyongyang failed to stop its nuclear weapons program. Referring to Kim, he added: "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime." Kim called Trump a "mentally-deranged US dotard" two days later.
Image: Getty Images/S. Platt
November 29, 2017: Third ICBM test
North Korea test-fired its third ICBM of 2017. Pyongyang claimed it was a new missile, the Hwasong-15, which was superior to the Hwasong-14 and could hit any target on the US mainland. The US urged allies, including Germany, to break diplomatic ties with North Korea. Berlin ignored the call. Trump also called Kim a "sick puppy."
Image: Reuters/KCNA
January 3, 2018: Who's got the bigger button?
Kim said in his 2018 New Year's address that the North had completed its nuclear weapons program and that a "nuclear button" was on his desk at all times. Trump wrote two days later on Twitter: "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"
Image: Reuters/KCNA
February 10, 2018: Tensions thawing?
South Korean President Moon Jae-in welcomed Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, at the presidential house in the South Korean capital. She handed a letter to Moon inviting him to meet the North Korean leader in Pyongyang. Tensions appeared to be thawing. Seoul and Pyongyang had already agreed to send a unified hockey team to compete at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/K. Ju-sung
March 6, 2018: Momentum builds
South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong led a delegation on March 5 to Pyongyang to discuss the potential for peace talks. The next day, Chung said both sides had agreed to hold a joint summit in April and set up a telephone hotline between the two capitals. He also said Pyongyang would agree to stop its nuclear weapons and missile tests if the US agreed to hold talks with the North.
Image: Reuters/Yonhap/Reuters/Yonhap/South Korean Presidential Blue House
March 9, 2018: Trump agrees
Chung flew on to Washington, D.C. to speak with Trump. After the meeting, Chung told reporters the US president had agreed to meet Kim by May. Trump later wrote on Twitter: "no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!" Foreign leaders welcomed the historic breakthrough.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/dpa/Wong Maye-E
April 19, 2018: 'Denuclearization'
A week before the scheduled meeting at the border between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Moon said North Korea wanted "an end to the hostile relations" and had expressed a commitment to "complete denuclearization" of the peninsula. The next day, the telephone hotline was connected for the first time since February 2016, so Moon and Kim could talk directly.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Young-Joon
April 21, 2018: Kim ends missile tests
Kim announced North Korea would stop nuclear and missile tests. Kim said: "We no longer need any nuclear test or test launches of intermediate and intercontinental range ballistic missiles, and because of this the northern nuclear test site has finished its mission." However, no mention was made of its stored nuclear materials and equipment.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/A. Young-joon
April 27, 2018: Historic summit
Kim and Moon Jae-in meet in the border town of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that has divided the two Koreas since the Korean War in 1953. The two leaders vowed to work towards a nuclear-free Korea and pledged an end to war. It was the first time a North Korean leader had set foot across the border since the 1950s and paves the diplomatic way for a Trump-Kim meeting in May or June.
Image: DW/Alexander Freund
April 30, 2018: Seoul turns off broadcasts
South Korea announces its propaganda loudspeakers are to be switched off for good. They had been silenced temporarily ahead of the inter-Korean summit, which prompted the North to halt its broadcasts, too. Pyongyang also said it would adjust its time zone to that of the South as a symbolic gesture. North Korea has been half an hour behind the South since 2015.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. Jones
May 24, 2018: Trump calls off Kim summit
After North Korea slammed US Vice President Mike Pence for comparing North Korea and Libya, Donald Trump abruptly canceled the summit. Trump said the move was due to "tremendous anger and open hostility" displayed by Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Vucci
June 1, 2018: Trump backtracks
A day after scrapping the summit, Trump suggested he was still open to meeting Kim. US and North Korean officials met during the following week and on June 1, Trump met one of Kim's closest aides, Kim Yong Chol, in the White House. Shortly thereafter, Trump said the summit would indeed take place on June 12 in Singapore. "I think you're going to have a very positive result in the end," he said.
Image: picture-alliance/A. Harnik
June 12, 2018: Smiles in Singapore
Trump and Kim met in Singapore as planned. They smiled, shook hands and praised how far they had come in overcoming their previous animosity. The summit ended with both leaders signing a short joint declaration that committed Pyongyang to denuclearize and the US to providing unspecified "security guarantees" to the North. Trump also said he would invite Kim to the White House.
