Core Principles that Guide Our Work.

Network of Passionate Workshop Leaders | We leverage an international network of qualified and passionate volunteers from corporate, government and academic sectors as workshop leaders

Focus on Exceptional North Koreans | We spend considerable effort selectively identifying North Korean young professionals with the potential to drive change, and provide these exceptional individuals with overseas opportunities

Emphasis on Selecting the Right Audience | We believe that carefully selecting the right recipients of our efforts and making the effort to understand their information needs are critical in driving change.

Clear Focus on Paths to Change | We use various sources to understand emerging policies and how we can support the development of effective economic institutions and policies

Our Programs

1. Develop institutional and individual understanding of economics, business and law

We provide training and advisory in topics related to business, economics, finance and law to encourage a dialogue on economic development, civil society and governance. As part of this objective, we run workshops, internships and fellowships overseas and inside North Korea for selected North Koreans. Programs include:

Women in Business: This program target leading young female managers and entrepreneurs with business skills training, with a focus on enabling the best candidates to set-up or grow their business.

Policy Entrepreneurship: This program focuses on key policy issues where we hope to create a creative dialogue. 2013 focus areas include Special Economic Zone formation, inflation policy and monetary/fiscal/legal policies.

Business Incubation: We have been piloting a program to help North Korean entrepreneurs develop business ideas and bring these ideas to fruition through incorporation and start-up funding. We expect to roll-out this program more extensively in 2014.

2. Share expertise in business & economic conditions in North Korea

We promote understanding of North Korea’s business and economic environment through occasional summaries of discussions in North Korea. Non-confidential discussions are summarized at a general level and are written to be suitable for public dissemination or for specific partners.

3. Create 2-way non-traditional knowledge exchange

We occasionally bring groups interested in innovative knowledge-sharing to Pyongyang to create exchanges in areas outside of our core competencies and core partners. We also facilitate opportunities for North Koreans to attend international conferences or programs or to tap new and innovative educational resources (e.g. Wikibooks and OpenCourseWare).