From July 29 to August 15, North-Eastern Federal University held the Arctic Summer School in Yakutsk, co-organized by the Northern Forum and Korea Maritime Institute, Seoul.

For the past three weeks, the participants from Korea, Argentina, Germany, and Japan attended lectures on socio-economic development of the Arctic Zone of Russian Federation, infrastructural development of Northern Sea route and new shipping corridors, Arctic tourism, Yakut and indigenous peoples’ cultures, etc.

During the program, participants had a chance to visit the Chkalov village, situated on one of the islands of Lena river, where they had been accommodated in host families. Besides that, students visited one of the most popular tourist attractions – Nature Park “Lena Pillars”, the scientific station for research on the impact of climate change “Spasskaya Pad’” and ethnographic complex-museum “Druzhba” (Friendship) in Sottinsy village.

Many of the participants are excited to connect their future careers with the Arctic and plan to contribute to the establishment of the cooperation between their countries and Russia. “When I first came here I was focusing only on the aspects of business development in Yakutia. But when I became more close with people who live here and saw how much efforts they spend on preserving their traditions and culture, I realized how important it is to give attention to these issues as well” – shares his impressions, student of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seongbin Lee, Republic of Korea.