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There was held the “Asian Workshop” under the guidance of Academician Vasily Mikheev.

Professor of Kookmin University in Seoul Dr. Andrey Lankov made report “North Korea: from inside and outside” at the event.

Professor Lankov talked about the socio-economic situation in the DPRK after the end of the Cold war. Particularly he emphasized the changes in North Korean industry and agriculture as well as in public and everyday life of its citizens. He made an assessment of the impact of the worsening of US-DPRK relations in 2017 on the North Korean economy. Dr. Lankov also talked about foreign strategy of the North Korean leadership that remains extremely pragmatic and focuses mainly on the survival of the current political regime. As long as nuclear capability continues to be considered as the only guarantee of the regime survival, the complete and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea remains a difficult task.

The discussion held after the speech was devoted to the issues of inter-Korean relations and the prospects for Korean reunification, the current state of the DPRK's nuclear and missile program, the of the international sanctions impact on the strategy of the North Korean leadership, the problem of abducted citizens in Japanese-North Korean relations, etc.