posted
Rumors are spreading around campus about north korean students who may be attending my university. They started recently, mainly between the south korean students, one of whom told me about it earlier today. There is some evidence about their presence also, which has me wondering about the possibility... whereas first I brushed it off as impossible.
Anyone here know if its possible for a North korean citizen to become a US student?
We're thinking that they either transferred here from another country, such as China, and may not be North Korean citizens anymore... or that they have fled to the US somehow under protection from their government. They, according to the evidence we have, are still loyal to north korea, so they are likely either still citizens, or only changed citizenship in order to study here, thus leaving their allegience to NK.
posted
i work at the international faculty and scholar services on campus. we deal with visitors coming over to do research and teach. our sister office is international student services. so we are pretty up to date with any news dealing with anything important with regards to people from any country coming over here. it's pretty absurd( to my liking) how restricted people are when attempting to get over here and attend universities. I'd have to double check our databases but I believe we only have a handful of N.K. people here. The idea of foreigners here is pretty scrutinized so I wouldn't suspect much from people who could be or actually are from countries that impose threats.
posted
so it is possible? So do you know if the NK students are NK citizens working to study abroad with Nk visas, or are they now citizens of other countries (such as China), so they could come here to study?
I would very much like to meet a NK student... as would the SK student population. According to the rumors, there are 2 NK students here, and nobody had any idea they were here. the international student office refuses to comment on anything relating to NK students, though, which is very weird, to say the least. They're not like that about students from other parts of the world that have tensions with the US, such as China.
There is an Iranian man over the international student program, though. I've known him for years, but only recently found out he was from Iran.
posted
i'll look when i go into work but I could have sworn we have 2 NA profs here. Not sure I can get into the student database though. If you can find out what type of visa they would come over on then I might be able to look into our database by visa status. Also, we report to the U.S. govt on numbers. I recently had to show the faculty and scholars by number and country to a "survey" taken from U.S. colleges. I know they had to do students as well. Maybe I can ask where I can see the results.
and, to the best of my knowledge, they would need an I-20. I don't know much about this, and I might be wrong, but from what I've heard international students need this and their passport to come here from abroad. On the I-20 the school they plan to attend/are attending confirms enrollment and it has information on it about the student and his or her plans for studies.
but then again, the NK students would only show up in a search of I-20's if they came here directly from NK. I don't know that its possible to do that... I would bet that they woulld be in with the Chinese (DPRK, not ROC, of course). Do you know much about chinese or Korean names? They are easy to tell apart in most cases. If you find a couple korean names with the Chinese, I would imagine the likelyhood is fairly high that they are from NK.
if your university has a tool for searching for students on its site, you can try typing a space after any word... its a bug that usually brings up the entire database of entries for student/faculty searches... here anyway but there would be thousands on entries...
then again, you could try searching for major cities in NK, and you might get lucky...
but why does it matter if they are here from North Korea or south korea or if they came from japan or england or germany?
who cares, why does it matter?
this country was founded by people that came from other countries.
thsi country is based on the prinicple of freedom. and the idea that we "supposedly" allow anyone to come and live here.
not "everyone" in a specific country follows the beliefs of thier government. ie: north korean communists, etc...
i'm sure we have our own stash of american communists. or those that dont believe in our way of life. and we've never had a shortage of people defecting to other countries whose views more accurately matched thiers.
like i said, no offense meant. im just curious why it matters if you have students at your campus from north korea.
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posted
Who gives a fock? Why not worry about that taliban member driving that big Rig next to you on our Highways. I was doing a pre-field the other day at a constuction site and every 18 wheel dirt hauler coming out of there was owned and operated by Jhgalicjha Inc or Mujahlcikca Trucking.
I'm more worried about 20 tons of truck then I'm worried about 70 Lbs of student.
posted
one of the duties of our department, not necessarily my office, is to keep records, both from the home country and locally, so if something were to arise we can tell the proper authorities. This isn't limited to the idea of people posing a threat but it does include them.
I wouldn't say all, but a mass of people coming over here do so to teach, learn, or do research either for their own country, for the U.S., or in conjuction with both. This is an easier avenue for people with bad intentions to mask in order to get into the U.S. If we didn't give a **** and then something happened, fingers start pointing and questions arise like " if you would have done this, that wouldn't have happened". and usually those questions come from people who initially paid no mind to what was going on. Call it preventative maintenance.
posted
well, I think you might have misunderstood.
I'm by no means assuming that the North Korean students have any bad intentions. honestly, the thought never crossed my mind until it was mentioned here. I just figured that they are students here to learn, and they just happen to be from the DPRK. I'm a plitical science major, and I'm very interested in international relations, customs, language, daily life, and thought-- specifically relating to eastern countries (China, Japan, North and South Korea, Taiwan-- but also middle-eastern countries such as Turkey and Saudi-Arabia). Learning about these things fascinates me.
and to the other two who commented...
I very much enjoy chatting about politics with international students. Those most affected by tensions, such as Taiwanese and South Korean students, are the most interested, understandably.
People of the US seem to care much less in general, also understandably. There is no major direct threat to the US-- we go about our daily lives without having to worry that we might be invaded. We don't have a draft that keeps our minds atuned to international tensions. As an american, if I completely ignore Iraq, Iran, the DPRK, China, etc. it will likely not affect my life-- I would be able to live my life without concern.
What does a stack dump mean to a biologist? Nothing. What does it matter to me if there is a new species of Oak discovered in Illinois? Also, nothing. International relations matter to me because of my educational concentration and interests.
I'm not worried about terrorism because... to be frank, the chances of a terrorist attacking anywhere I frequent is non-existent. That and even if I lived in Chigago or Los Angeles, the changes are still pretty slim. I have better things to worry about. Terrorism is a policy issue, not a personal concern for my safety.
posted
i was going to pursue my international business certificate but realized going to college wasn't a career. it was one of the reasons I took this job. I might be posting from Kuwait in about 6 months.
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