Aid and Development Co-operation and North Korea: A Window of Opportunities or Pushing at a Closed Door?

Life in North Korea today is much more vibrant than the stark slopes and muted grey concrete buildings Katharina Zellweger encountered when she began traveling to North Korea in the mid-1990s. Day-to-day existence is still a struggle for many people, especially in the countryside, but Zellweger, who is the 2011–12 Pantech Fellow with Stanford’s Korean Studies Program, has watched positive change slowly ripple throughout the country for 17 years.

Drawing on her own experience, she presented thoughts her thoughts on aid and development work in North Korea—including strategies for conducting successful projects—at a March 29 forum held at Harvard University's Korea Institute.