THE NORTHEAST ASIA YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FORUM is an Asia-based academic consensus building program for university students and professors from the East and West. This symposium focuses on development as a wider term, which encompasses economic development, cultural development, and social development, including historical reconciliation and conflict resolution.

As a multifaceted youth symposium, this program challenges participants to brainstorm solutions for maintaining regional stability and furthering peace both within the Northeast Asian community and between Northeast Asia and the West. International participants work together in small, topic-oriented groups to build consensus among group members and in the end produce a joint presentation and document of consensus. This document should not only outline the consensus formed within the group, but also what it took to reach this consensus and issues where finding common ground was particularly challenging.


THiNK KOREAN LANGUAGE SUMMER COURSE This ten-week course’s primary goal is to teach international students North Korean language (조선말) using the Pyongyang standard dialect in the DPRK. The classes are taught by teachers from the DPRK at Yanbian University in Yanji, Yanbian Korean Autonomous State, China.

This is an intensive Korean language program, and students should expect to spend a minimum of twenty-five hours per week in formal language classes, totalling two hundred and fifteen hours. Additionally, students should also expect to have language while on two separate field trips to the DPRK.


TUMEN RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND SECURITY STUDIES ISP COURSE AT YANBIAN UNIVERSITY The Tumen River Development and Security Studies ISP Course at Yanbian University is a month-long course analyzing the complexities, sensitivities, and prospects of the greater Tumen River region between China, the DPRK, and Russia's Primorsky Krai.

Although based at Yanbian University in Yanji City, the capital of China's Yanbian Ethnic Korean Autonomous State, this course stresses the interconnected nature of this historically, culturally and politically complicated region.

Topics of study include: modern and historical regional relations, national interests, economic engagement, investment, emigration issues, Korean studies, border and security issues, Soviet legacy, and international relations. Classes are taught by professors from Yanbian University's Northeast Asia Research Center and guest lecturers from China, Russia, Korea and the US.


ACADEMIC DELEGATION TRIPS allow students and professors to explore the DPRK through a combination of academic discussions, interactive activities with North Korean students and locals, lectures, site visits, and group bonding activities. Beginning with a four day orientation in China, these programs give participants a comprehensive introduction to the core issues facing the DPRK and the region. We offer several delegation programs each summer. Each ten-day program is limited to sixteen participants and no academic focus in Korea or East Asia is required to apply.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the volume of our projects and programs, no delegation trips have been scheduled for 2012. We have not yet made a final decision as to whether we will schedule one for Summer 2012. Interested students and professors should look into our Northeast Asia Youth Development Forum.


INDEPENDENT UNIVERSITY COURSES are subject-based programs we develop in cooperation with Western universities (or university classes, departments, think tanks, etc.). These programs center around a predetermined research topic or curriculum and are usually credit-bearing for students who participate in them. However, university courses are currently only open to students from the university sponsoring the program and most universities have their own internal review for admissions into the course. We are currently working with the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University, Lafayette College, Hong Kong University and the Asia Society to develop joint programs in the DPRK and Northeast Asian region.