Politics at the Pub tapping North Korea

The Nipissing Branch of the Canadian International Council (CIC), presents Politics at the Pub: North Korea (DPRK) – Humanitarian aid or human rights? Or both? Or neither?, moderated by Erich Weingartner, on Monday, December 1, 7 – 9 p.m. at Cecil’s Eatery and Beer Society (300 Wyld St. North Bay). Drawing on his knowledge of North Korea, Mr. Weingartner will moderate a discussion on contemporary events on the Korean Peninsula.

Tickets cost $15; $5 for students and the event is free to CIC Members. Please register with Everbrite, here, before December 1 as seating is limited.
Weingartner worked inter alia as research assistant at the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, Deputy General Secretary of the International Documentation Centre in Rome, and Executive Secretary of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs in Geneva, where from 1978 to 1986 he guided the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) human rights policies.

Weingartner's Korea experience goes back 35 years. As WCC staff member he became deeply involved in the human rights and democratization movement in South Korea (ROK). During his first visit to North Korea (DPRK) in 1985 he opened contact with the Korean Christian Federation in Pyongyang. He successfully negotiated with both North and South Korean governments to permit an encounter between church delegations from both sides. Taking place in Glion, Switzerland in 1986, this was the first non-governmental inter-Korean meeting since the Korean War. In the following five years, he organized 4 more international conferences with participation of both North and South Korean delegations.

From May 1997 to July 1999 Weingartner worked in Pyongyang as founding Head of the Food Aid Liaison Unit of the United Nations World Food Programme. He was the first NGO representative (and first Canadian) to achieve resident status in the DPRK. Traveling through all provinces of North Korea, he visited ports, rail yards, warehouses, nurseries, kindergartens, boarding schools, orphanages, hospitals, factories, farms and many families in their homes, both in rural and urban settings.

After his return to Canada, Weingartner initiated contacts that led to the establishment of diplomatic relations (in 2001) between Canada and the DPRK. In 2002, Weingartner was awarded a Human Security Research Fellowship by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. His work on “DPR Korean Perceptions of Human Insecurity”, was carried out at York University’s Centre for International and Security Studies in Toronto. In the Fall of 2014, Weingartner again visited South Korea and Beijing, China.

Weingartner founded and for 12 years edited the CanKor Report, a newsletter and website dedicated to Canada-DPRK relations, until he (and CanKor) retired in 2013. He currently lives on the South Shore of Lake Nipissing.

The Canadian International Council is a non-partisan, non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering the engagement of Canadians in Canadian foreign policy and in international issues generally.