About 15 Penn State students gathered in Old Main last night to participate in a videoconference with college students around the world about the current political situation with North Korea.
The students joined others in Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Kalamazoo, Mich., Vermillion, S. D., Canberra, Australia, and Seoul, South Korea, to talk about nuclear weapons, humanitarian aid and democracy in North Korea.
The videoconference is part of Americans for Informed Democracy's (AID) "Red, White and Blue Coming Together" series, meant to raise awareness of political issues in Americans and people around the world.
AID Campus Coordinator Heidi Lynch (junior-international politics and German) helped organize the event.
"[AID] is nonpartisan, and they try to create events like this for student awareness," she said. "The World Bank technically set up the conference."
The conference allowed participants to present their ideas and then offer reactions over the course of several years.
"It's an excellent idea to engage other cultures and other nations in civil dialogue," Jon Dandrea (senior-international politics) said. "The media doesn't address these issues. This is a very pressing issue. It deals with our national security. This is in many ways a matter of life and death; of life and limb."
Political Science Association (PSA) President Midori Valdivia said events like this are really necessary.
"It's a wonderful opportunity to be able to talk to students from not only from diverse cultures, but by people who are affected by North Korean proliferation," she said.
"Being so far away, you can't imagine being in that situation," Valdivia added.
A representative from Michigan said North Korea is using a very dangerous playing strategy.
"We need to negotiate appropriately and effectively," the representative said. "It's taking too much time and effort without making any signs of progress."
Lynch said she is concerned that North Korea will sell nuclear technology to other groups.
"It's very likely that they will sell any technology they have to groups we don't approve up, like terrorists, like Al-Qaeda," she said. "North Korea should step away from its nuclear weapons program. [U.S.] military force should be avoided as much as possible."
Lynch said proliferation is a serious issue.
"It's frightening to think about a terrorist group getting a nuclear weapon. I think North Korea is a pretty unstable state," she said.
"When you have nuclear power, it puts you in a somewhat elite group. It's an issue of power, prestige, and capability. It's an issue because of the tremendous power these things have," Lynch added.
