First joint inter-Korean school set to open in Pyongyang

Having served in South Korea on the DMZ, this story is very meaningful to me.

The AFP reports:
The first joint university set up by South and North Korea will open this year in Pyongyang against the backdrop of warming ties between the two sides, the school authorities said here Wednesday.

Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is set to open in the capital of the communist country in September, with 150 graduate students enrolled on subjects including IT, food and business.

"This is the first ever joint school set up by North and South Korea," an official of the private Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture said.

All the courses will be given in English, he said.

The school's faculty will be composed of some 45 South Korean and foreign professors and 10 general staff.

The foundation originally planned to open the school in April but strained inter-Korean ties delayed the project.

Tensions eased after progress was made at six-party talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear programmes, enabling the university to move forward, the official said.

Kim Jin-Kyong, dean of Yanbian Science and Technology College, will be the first dean of the inter-Korean college, he said.

The project has cost the foundation some 17 million dollars since 2002, with North Korea providing construction workers and some materials including sand and pebbles.

The college will consist of a five-storey building for lectures, a four-storey building for a library, dining facilities and research and five dormitory buildings.