Opening a door for change in North Korea
As a Korean American, something that always felt divided with me was North Korea. Growing up in a Christian household, I believed that North Korea was a wasteland of Christianity, and it was a dystopian totalitarian country with no personality or communities. However, in 2023, I signed up to take an internship at the Korean Church Coalition. This internship required me to write an essay on North Korea and give a speech in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club or the Capitol, and this program helped pique my interest in North Korean culture, society and the people in general. I started digging further into the lifestyle and communities built within North Korea, and I discovered a video about Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST). The video, while it was short, offered a peak into North Korean life. Rather than the isolated and beat down North Korean society I had expected, one university, albeit a unique one, was welcoming, embraced outsiders and each other, and helped one another change. The professors and teachers were American and were sponsored by evangelical a
