Exchange deal gives rare chance to North Korean physicists

Researchers at North Korea’s leading university have struck an unusual agreement with an Italian institute that will enable physicists from the isolated state to be trained in neuroscience, writes Alison Abbott for Nature.

The agreement is a rare opportunity for North Korean physicists. Sanctions normally prevent them from being trained by foreign scientists, because of their field’s association with nuclear research. The arrangement will enable North Korean physicists to apply their quantitative abilities to another research field: computational neuroscience.

The deal, forged earlier this month and approved by the Italian foreign ministry, is between the physics department at Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), a university in Trieste, Italy, which has previously hosted North Korean researchers on an ad hoc basis. The deal formalises the institutions’ relationship and makes it easier for Kim Il-sung physicists to go to Italy to study under and collaborate with SISSA researchers. The arrangement also makes it easier for SISSA scientists to go to Kim Il-sung University, for example to teach.
Full report on the Nature site