Student's trip to North Korea offers peek at shared humanity

Wilfrid LaurierUniversitystudent Andrew Fawcett had an eye-opening visitduring a student visitto Asia, and the experience has turned the student in Waterloo, Ont., into an open-information advocate.

While in China for a brief academic exchange, he signed up for a shortchaperoned visit toNorth Korea.

• Listento student AndrewFawcettchat with CBC Radio's Craig Norris on The MorningEdition (6:30)

Starting out as an optimistic attempt to make contact with"real" people in North Korea, he quickly learned how insular, xenophobic and dangerous the country can be.

Fawcett told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition how state monitors watched and listened to his conversations with tour staff and people he met during the visit.

One evening, the Canadian student chatted with a tour guideabout his personal dreams, learning of the guide's aspirations for his daughter's university education.Thenextmorning,theguidedisappearedfromthetourteam.

Fawcett'sclassroom project to bring awareness about North Korea quickly grew into a formal panel discussion that included international relations experts and two people who had successfully defected from North Korea.

He's also joined a drive to collect USB keys for making information available to North Koreans.

They'll be loaded with Wikipedia,because even information that basic is prohibited in the country.

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