Introduction to the Special Issue

ASIAN PERSPECTIVE, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2002, pp. 5-8 INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE Timothy Savage Key words: U.S.-DPRK Pilot Renewable Village Energy Pro­ ject, windmill, NGO On May 13, 1998, a 100-foot tall metal tower was raised in a cabbage patch in Unhari village on the west coast of North Korea. Visible for miles around, this tower was the first install­ ment of a system that has thus far come to include seven windpowered turbines with a total of just over ten kilowatts of gener­ ating capacity; a powerhouse that includes measuring instru­ ments and batteries for storing the power generated; and a water-pumping windmill that provides drinking water to the village. The windmill project grew out of a series of trips that Nau­ tilus Institute Executive Director Peter Hayes made to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, beginning in 1991. When tension over the DPRK's nuclear program threatened to spiral toward war in 1994, the Institute responded by launching the Northeast Asian Peace & Security Network (NAPSNet), an e-mail and (eventually) web-based news and analysis service aimed at countering the tendency of crises to spiral out of con­ trol due to incomplete or erroneous information.1 On November 21, 1997, as the DPRK languished in its third consecutive year of famine, a delegation of North Korean renew­ able energy experts came to the United States at the invitation of the Nautilus Institute. The delegation visited several renewable 6 Timothy Sa vage energy sites in the United States, including the Sacramento Utility Municipal District solar cell central station; the Zond Corporation wind farm in Tehachapi, California; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado; and many other renewable ener­ gy firms. Along the way, the visitors received expert briefings on renewable energy and energy efficiency at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and from specialist renewable energy organizations, including the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, the International Institute for Energy Conservation, the Atlantic Council, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the National Wind Energy Association, and the Solar Energy Indus­ tries Association. In Washington, D.C., where the delegation's visit was co­ hosted by the Atlantic Council's Conflict Resolution Program, it met with U.S. Department of Energy officials, the first time that a DPRK delegation had visited that department's headquarters. The delegates were also briefed at the World Bank on renewable energy international programs, the first-ever visit by a DPRK delegation to the World Bank. At the conclusion of the visit, the DPRK Renewable Energy Delegation and the Nautilus Institute agreed to establish the U.S.-DPRK Pilot Renewable Village Energy Project. The project uses small-scale U.S. wind power turbines to meet humanitarian energy-related needs in rural end uses such as in household lighting, medical clinics, agricultural water pumping, and food processing. The project had several goals: to bring attention to the DPRK's energy crisis as a root cause of the famine condi­ tions; to help prepare the DPRK to be able to accept internation­ al aid; to learn more about the feasibility of applying renewable energy technology in the DPRK; and to demonstrate that Ameri­ cans and North Koreans could put aside their differences and work toward a common goal. Prior to this project, U.S. non­ governmental organizations (NGOs) had been limited by both the U.S. and DPRK governments to the delivery of food aid, so the Nautilus project was the first true cooperative development project between an American NGO and a North Korean organi­ zation, in this case the Korean Anti-Nuclear Peace Committee (KANPC). In order to meet the requirements for a humanitarian exemption from the sanctions then in place against North Korea, Introduction to the Special Issue 7 it was specified that the site for the project had to be a floodaffected rural village. After examining several candidate sites, Nautilus and KANPC chose the March 3 Cooperative Farm in Unhari. Built on reclaimed tidal flats, the village had been severely affected by flooding and tidal waves.2 The first Nautilus mission to the DPRK in May 1998 installed the first tower and laid out the plans for building...