On Thursday 19th May, His Excellency Mr Alastair Morgan, United Kingdom Ambassador to the DPR Korea, visited the PUST campus.
His Excellency Mr. Alastair Morgan visiting with a Finance class. © Ian Wells 2016
Mr Morgan arrived in Pyongyang last winter as the new British ambassador and had asked to visit PUST after hearing about our work. He spent a morning on the campus, with his Japanese wife and another member of the embassy team. They visited classes and laboratories; and also saw the work at the medical and dental clinics; followed by lunch in the cafeteria with some students who had studied in London; and time to chat with British and other members of PUST’s overseas community.
Earlier in his diplomatic career, Ambassador Morgan held posts related to trade and investment, so he was particularly interested to visit a class in the Finance Department of the International Finance and Management (IFM) School, as well as a freshman English class. He asked the students various questions about their interests, what they thought was good (or not so good!) about PUST, and their hopes for the future, as well as discussing what they knew about the UK. Commenting on their English, he remarked on their good standard and fluency; and how they didn’t make certain ‘common mistakes of non-native speakers’.
As well as the class visits, the ambassador had detailed discussions with DPRK-side and foreign-side leaders of PUST, regarding the vision for PUST and its special place in the DPRK; practical problems of operations, such as how to get materials needed for agriculture lab work, especially in the current situation; and developing friendly relations with the UK: the prospects for further academic exchanges of students to study in Britain and recruitment of short- and long-term British faculty.