Engaging North Korea with High-culture Soft Power: Knowledge Sharing with Pyongyang

As articulated by Joseph Nye, soft power is the ability to achieve goals through attraction rather than by threat or conflict. Although frequently associated with the state and foreign policy, non-state actors can also develop and possess soft power independent of the state. In particular, educational institutions have long held significant amounts of soft power that transcend national boundaries. Through knowledge sharing, educational institutions can leverage soft power to influence a society through educating its social and political elites, and future leaders.

Knowledge sharing that focuses on human resource development is one of the most successful areas of cooperation between North Korea and the international community. Knowledge sharing activities not only give North Korean participants access to knowledge but this access contains an important potential for socialization effects – the spreading of ideas, customs and values. Despite this, however, the current body of literature on knowledge sharing is quite limited.

Based on the on-going knowledge sharing experiences with North Korea at the University of British Columbia, this paper explores the nature and the development of knowledge sharing with Pyongyang, demonstrating that North Korea can be a ‘willing interpreter and receiver’ of soft power. Using the concept of university soft power, the paper proposes that educational institutions are inherently effective in using their influence and expertise to initiate successful, long-term knowledge sharing with North Korea. It will also examine strategies for successful knowledge sharing with Pyongyang and the impacts of such knowledge sharing with relation to engagement efforts with North Korea.

透視北韓與高文化軟實力：與平壤的知識共享

正如約瑟夫·奈所言，軟實力是通過吸引而不是威脅或衝突實現目標的能力。雖然軟實力經常與國家和外交政策相聯繫，非國家行為者也可以獨立於國家爾開發並擁自己的軟實力。教育機構一直以來就擁有超越國界的顯著的軟實力。通過知識共享，教育機構可以利用其軟實力通過教育社會政治精英及未來領袖爾影響社會。在人力資源開發方面的知識共享是北韓和國際社會之間合作得最成功的領域之一。知識共享活動不僅使北韓學員得以獲得知識，還帶來一個重要的潛在社會效應，即觀念、習俗和價值觀的傳播。儘管如此，目前所能共享的文献和知識领領域還是相當有限的。

基於在不列顛哥倫比亞大學進行的與北韓持續的知識共享經驗，本文探討與平壤進行的知識共享的性質和 的發展，並表示，北韓可以是軟實力“心甘情願的翻譯者和接收者”。使用“高校軟實力”的概念，本文指出，教育機構可以有效地利用其影響力和專業知識來啟動與北韓成功爾長期的的知識共享。本文還研究了與平壤成功地進行知識共享的策略以及這些知識共享努力對與北韓互動的影響。

Translated from English by Xin Huang