BEIJING (AP) – Tightening U.N. sanctions and an inability to freely access the Internet are inhibiting the work of North Korean scientists, Nobel Prize laureates who recently visited the country said Saturday.
Medicine prize winner Richard Roberts, economics prize winner Finn Kydland and chemistry prize winner Aaron Ciechanover told reporters in Beijing that they hoped their weeklong visit to North Korea would promote further scientific and educational exchanges with the country despite its isolation.
A lack of modern scientific equipment due to years of sanctions and outdated methodologies have left North Korean scientists trailing far behind their foreign counterparts, said Roberts, who is research director at New England Biolabs in Boston.
“So this embargo is really hurting the scientists in some major ways, and I think that’s a great shame,” Roberts said, adding that the type of scientific diplomacy the delegation engaged in had the potential to be a “very powerful tool for diplomacy.”
Roberts said that, while North Korea’s tight restrictions on the global Internet prevent most scientists from collaborating with colleagues in other countries or accessing the latest scientific literature, he sensed a strong desire for more international exchanges.