By Park Si-soo
North Korea is losing ground in South Korean academic circles at a time of growing military tension between the two countries.
Universities here have closed or downsized departments that offered courses on the country in recent years, citing relatively high unemployment rates of graduates and difficulty in attracting freshmen.
Students and North Korea experts say the situation is a short-sighted policy that should be halted to safeguard ongoing studies and research into the reclusive state, and to nurture human resources to prepare for unification.
They warn that this trend will create another ironic situation in which South Korea falls behind countries such as the U.S. when it comes to North Korean studies.
Despite the outcry, universities appear determined to keep downsizing.
Insiders recognize the importance of the department but say that keeping it afloat despite underperformance is all but impossible, especially in the face of the deteriorating financial health of universities.
Korean schools, whose operating expenditure depends largely on tuition fees, are struggling with deteriorating bottom lines. A major culprit is the reduced number of freshmen, which experts claim is a result of the prolonged low birthrate.
This trend has hit domestic universities, especially mediocre ones, putting them under increasing pressure to shut or downsize "underperforming" departments measured by employment rates of graduates and popularity among newcomers.
Experts say the department's graduates find it hard to land a job at private companies or government bodies after the government turned hawkish toward the North in the early 2000s.
This political shift has led to a drastic cut in demand for the department's graduates who are educated to deal with dialogue-centered soft strategies, not hard-line ones, they say.
"It was a heyday for departments from the late 1990s to early 2000s because the two Koreas engaged in brisk dialogue," said a graduate working at a domestic think tank.
"But this disappeared after conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008 with a hawkish stance toward the North. The incumbent President Park Geun-hye is in the same position, pledging tit-for-tat exchanges against North Korea's military provocations, rather than trying to address Pyongyang through dialogue."
The nation's first North Korean studies department was established at Dongguk University in 1994. Six other universities followed suit by the end of the 1990s. Now, however, only two universities maintain a department, Korea and Dongguk.
However, Korea University recently put the department into a restructuring program in which it will be shut or merged with another social science department.
"Given the special situation facing South Korea, we have to carry out the study without interruption," said Kim Yong-Hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University. "Otherwise we could be exposed to the risk of being unable to decide our own destiny at a critical moment."
North Korea is losing ground in South Korean academic circles at a time of growing military tension between the two countries.
Universities here have closed or downsized departments that offered courses on the country in recent years, citing relatively high unemployment rates of graduates and difficulty in attracting freshmen.
Students and North Korea experts say the situation is a short-sighted policy that should be halted to safeguard ongoing studies and research into the reclusive state, and to nurture human resources to prepare for unification.
They warn that this trend will create another ironic situation in which South Korea falls behind countries such as the U.S. when it comes to North Korean studies.
Despite the outcry, universities appear determined to keep downsizing.
Insiders recognize the importance of the department but say that keeping it afloat despite underperformance is all but impossible, especially in the face of the deteriorating financial health of universities.
"This is a very realistic problem," said a university official. "We know that the department is important. At the same time, however, it's a headache for universities."
Korean schools, whose operating expenditure depends largely on tuition fees, are struggling with deteriorating bottom lines. A major culprit is the reduced number of freshmen, which experts claim is a result of the prolonged low birthrate.
This trend has hit domestic universities, especially mediocre ones, putting them under increasing pressure to shut or downsize "underperforming" departments measured by employment rates of graduates and popularity among newcomers.
Experts say the department's graduates find it hard to land a job at private companies or government bodies after the government turned hawkish toward the North in the early 2000s.
This political shift has led to a drastic cut in demand for the department's graduates who are educated to deal with dialogue-centered soft strategies, not hard-line ones, they say.
"It was a heyday for departments from the late 1990s to early 2000s because the two Koreas engaged in brisk dialogue," said a graduate working at a domestic think tank.
"But this disappeared after conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008 with a hawkish stance toward the North. The incumbent President Park Geun-hye is in the same position, pledging tit-for-tat exchanges against North Korea's military provocations, rather than trying to address Pyongyang through dialogue."
The nation's first North Korean studies department was established at Dongguk University in 1994. Six other universities followed suit by the end of the 1990s. Now, however, only two universities maintain a department, Korea and Dongguk.
However, Korea University recently put the department into a restructuring program in which it will be shut or merged with another social science department.
"Given the special situation facing South Korea, we have to carry out the study without interruption," said Kim Yong-Hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University. "Otherwise we could be exposed to the risk of being unable to decide our own destiny at a critical moment."
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