"North Korea is a real country with real people getting on with their lives," said John Everard, former British ambassador to North Korea, to a full-house audience at a Korean Studies Program (KSP) lunchtime seminar on October 8, 2010. In his introduction of Everard, David Straub, KSP's associate director, noted the lack of reliable information about North Korea. Official government information is limited and everyday life is perhaps even less understood. Everard, who served in North Korea from 2006-2008, offered a firsthand perspective of ordinary people living inside North Korea, giving a very human dimension to a country often regarded only as a closed military state.

The darker side of life in North Korea is poverty, which is more acute now than in earlier decades. Everard stated that North Korea was ahead of South Korea economically until the 1970s and that the universal healthcare system put in place by Kim Il-sung was initially effective. The World Health Organization now provides most medical care in North Korea. Agriculture, once mechanized, has largely reverted to animal power and hunger, though not at famine level as it was in the 1990s, is still a major issue.

Leisure and social time also play a part of life in North Korea. People in Pyongyang frequent coffee shops and throughout the country neighbors gather for lively games of chess. Everard explained that daily activities like talking with family and friends are just as much a part of life in North Korea as they are in other parts of the world.

A bigger difference in North Korean society is the degree to which piety to the leading regime and service to the government is significantly integrated into life. Newly married couples, for example, will wear badges bearing images of Kim Il-sung pinned to their formal wedding clothes and lay flowers before a statue of the deceased leader. More than such customs though, Everard noted, North Korea's military service requirement has the biggest impact on people. Not only is the duration of eight to ten years significantly longer than the required one to two years of most countries, military life is also very strenuous.

Social attitudes in North Korea are changing, as are attitudes toward the outside world. Employees from North Korea now work for South Korean companies within the successful Kaesong Industrial Zone, which opened in 2004. Foreign goods, such as clothing, have also made their way into North Korea. People, suggested Everard, are beginning to modestly aspire to own more material possessions, like bicycles, and to learn more about the customs and cultures of other parts of the world.

Everard spoke about North Korea's relations with other countries. China has a natural interest in the stability of North Korea-its neighbor to the northeast-for its own welfare and it therefore supports it economically and politically. Despite a large Russian Federation embassy in Pyongyang, relations with Russia are not as strong as they were with the old Soviet Union, Everard said. Although the United States is officially regarded as an aggressor and an enemy, most people Everard met with did not express animosity toward Americans. "There is an openness toward warm relations with Americans if political relations improve," he said.

Everard described the curiosity expressed by North Koreans who asked him about life in the United States-about everything ranging from music to social conditions. Audience members-from the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, and numerous other countries-asked him an equally broad range of questions, demonstrating that perhaps there is an equal amount of curiosity and willingness to connect both inside and outside of North Korea.

John Everard is KSP's 2010-2011 Pantech Fellow. The David Straub, generously funded by the Pantech Group of Korea, are intended to cultivate a diverse international community of scholars and professionals committed to and capable of grappling with challenges posed by developments in Korea.

FSI's 2010 Fall Orientation welcomed faculty, staff, researchers, and friends of the institute to the new academic year and highlighted the institute's diverse research collaborations, educational programs, and policy engagement.  Presentations on display and in live video offered highlights of the current work of FSI centers and programs on many of the most challenging issues of the day. In his welcoming remarks, FSI Director Coit Blacker emphasized the interdisciplinary, cross-campus nature of FSI's work and thanked the FSI community for their many contributions to new knowledge and new approaches to many of the most pressing issues on today's global agenda.

This year's Orientation attracted the largest turnout to date. On continual display was a slide show capturing research of FSI centers and programs in the field and multi-disciplinary work here at the institute, along with highlights of FSI conferences, lectures, and policy endeavors compiled by FSI's Nora Sweeny.

Among the highlights were the following displays:

• A presentation by the Center for International Security and Cooperation on the center's research, writing, policy influence, and Track II Diplomacy
• A display of the many books published by the Walter Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center showing the range of economic, political, and regional issues addressed by APARC scholars, and a photo slideshow of recent events and publications demonstrating the breadth of faculty work bridging the U.S. and Asia
• A presentation by The Europe Center, newly launched and housed jointly in FSI and the Division of International and Comparative Area Studies, featuring major research areas, visiting scholars, publications, and notable events
• A presentation by Stanford Health Policy capturing its multidisciplinary work in medicine, law, business, economics, engineering, and psychology
•  A presentation by the Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies, a two-year interdisciplinary Master's program, which captured the IPS practicum, scholarly concentrations, internships, and careers
  
• A presentation by the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development featuring its work on environmental and policy research employing state of the art methodology to examine such issues as renewable energy, natural gas markets, national oil companies, low-income energy services, and climate change policy
• A presentation by the Program on Food Security and the Environment which addresses hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. FSE showcased its current research on topics such as solar electrification, food and nutrition security, climate change and conflicts, and evolving U.S. energy policy, as well as its upcoming series on Food Policy, Food Security, and the Environment
• A presentation by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education, which develops multi-disciplinary curriculum materials on international themes reflecting FSI scholarship. Recent educational projects include a three-part series examining U.S.-South Korean relations, Uncovering North Korea, and Inter-Korean Relations; and a collaboration with TeachAIDS, which works to address and overcome the social and cultural challenges related to HIV/AIDS prevention education through materials offered via the internet and CDs in several languages, http://teachaids.org
• A presentation featuring the Stanford Global Gateway, a comprehensive directory of Stanford in the world
• A presentation previewing the vision and mission of the Stanford Center at Peking University, opening Fall 2011

Other highlights included the presentations prepared by Stanford students who worked in the field this past summer. One group worked in China, developing a survey on nutrition and anemia and their effect on learning, with FSI's Scott Rozelle, Director of the Rural Education Action Program. A second group helped Dr. Paul Wise, professor of pediatrics and Stanford Health Policy core faculty member, evaluate prenatal care in the rural highlands of Guatemala.

In official and scholarly circles in the United States it has become almost a cliché to say that no country is both more important and less well known to Americans than Indonesia. Southeast Asia Forum director Donald K. Emmerson would like to change this by making Indonesia better known, among Americans generally and at Stanford especially. On September 19 he met in Jakarta with 18 locally resident Stanford alumni to discuss ideas for improving international awareness of, and expertise on, their country. Melinda Wiria (MS '98) coordinated the visit.

Following the resignation of Indonesia's authoritarian president Soeharto in 1998, the country underwent an extraordinary political transformation. Since 2006 Indonesia has been ranked by Freedom House as the only "free" country in Southeast Asia. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has proudly promoted his homeland's status as the third largest democracy, after India and the United States, and the largest Muslim-majority democracy as well.

In recognition of this achievement, the World Movement for Democracy chose to hold its Sixth Assembly in Indonesia. In April 2010, SEAF director Donald K. Emmerson traveled to Jakarta to attend the event and to arrange interviews with local political figures for a documentary film on democracy in developing countries. Also involved in the filming were Larry Diamond and Hicham Ben Abdallah, respectively the director of and a visiting scholar at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

One of the Indonesian interviewees was SBY himself, pictured above at the presidential palace with his wife Kristiani Herawati and Prof. Emmerson on the day of the filming. The president took the occasion very seriously, carefully preparing his answers and conveying them clearly in fluent English. The film will also feature Malaysia's experience with democracy, including the travails of opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim. 

The documentary's producer, Appleseed Entertainment, hopes to release it in 2011-12.