THE issue of North Korea鈥檚 nuclear weapons has seemed intractable for years. But the current flurry of diplomacy on the peninsula has raised hopes that the weapons will be put aside.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in has proven an adept diplomat. His is historic in its own right, just the third between leaders of the nations. It may set the stage for the unprecedented meeting he has brokered between Kim and US president Donald Trump.
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There have also been symbolic cultural exchanges: boosting a unified women鈥檚 ice hockey team at the PyeongChang winter games and playing to a packed audience, including Kim, in the North.
There is also potential for scientific exchange. Appreciation of science is embedded in North Korea鈥檚 ideology. Kim extols his nuclear and rocket scientists as heroes and views science as key to economic development.
There is precedent for genuine scientific diplomacy, even if most academic visits to the North are stage-managed. Pyongyang University of Science and Technology was founded so that foreigners could teach the children of the North鈥檚 elite.
And outsiders have been let in to help study the supervolcano Mount Paektu on the border between China and North Korea.
Exchanges that produce published papers are rare, but on the rise. , many with international co-authors, on topics ranging from cosmology to fish genetics. These are mostly a result of North Korean postgraduates allowed to study abroad. On their return, some still collaborate via email and meetings in countries such as China. But often, contact ceases.
While that is discouraging, the North Korean regime鈥檚 hunger for international scientific knowledge is clear: it wants to transfer know-how from abroad to its students.
There is also an interest in links with North Koreans. In 2016, Nobel laureates in science and economics 鈥� Aaron Ciechanover, Richard Roberts and Finn Erling Kydland 鈥� sponsored by the International Peace Foundation. They found talented students stymied by curbs on internet access and travel.
Such engagements shouldn鈥檛 paper over human rights abuses. But they can be potent: . The docking of US Apollo and Soviet Soyuz craft in orbit in 1975 鈥� known as the handshake in space 鈥� was hailed for thawing cold war tensions.
If Kim is serious about improving the security and well-being of his nation, he should let his academics work freely 鈥� and the rest of the world should embrace them.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢eeting of minds鈥�
