Club Meeting 07 March 2012

Ben Arbib, a lecturer in Politics and   International Relations at Latrobe   University came to talk about his primary research interest, ‘North Korea’.
Ben ‘s first trip to South Korea in 2002 was when he went there on an undergraduate   exchange and become fascinated with   the area. He explained the history of the  Korean peninsular its relationship with its surrounding countries of China and Japan. He went on to give his impressions of South Korea and its   relationship with the North and give   some detail about North Korea, its people, the country in general and its leadership. On subsequent trips Ben has made   visits to the DMZ and short day trips   into the North, which are highly supervised  so one is never able to be alone or talk to the locals.

His talk was accompanied with a power point presentation with photos of the area and the   Chinese city of Dandong on the Yalu   river on the border of China and North Korea. Ben spent several months   there in 2004 teaching English.