????去年，朝鮮官方宣布，統(tǒng)領(lǐng)全世界最封閉的國家17年之久的金正日去世。消息公布的當(dāng)天早上，一位76歲的韓裔美國教育家金鎮(zhèn)慶正坐在他位于朝鮮首都平壤的辦公室里。在1998年，金鎮(zhèn)慶還曾是金正日囚下的一名政治犯。而如今，他在朝鮮的首都一手創(chuàng)辦了平壤科技大學(xué)，這不得不說是一個小小的奇跡。

????2009年9月，我們曾報道過金鎮(zhèn)慶先生的故事（點擊查看）?，F(xiàn)在的平壤科技大學(xué)所在地當(dāng)時還只是平壤正南的一片荒地，學(xué)校尚在緊張施工。在閉關(guān)鎖國的朝鮮，平壤科技大學(xué)是唯一的一所私立大學(xué)，而這都是金鎮(zhèn)慶堅持不懈的成果。金鎮(zhèn)慶出生在首爾附近，曾參加過朝鮮戰(zhàn)爭，上世紀(jì)70年代移居美國。經(jīng)過不懈努力，他終于說服朝鮮領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層接受了他的理念：在首都成立一所一流的科技大學(xué)，以吸引外國學(xué)者來校任教。

????平壤科技大學(xué)于2010年秋正式對外開放。筆者曾有幸在金正日去世前幾天參觀了這所大學(xué)。目前，學(xué)校共有267名學(xué)生。學(xué)生全部為男生，其中200人為本科生。學(xué)校以英文授課為主。雖然朝鮮仍在不遺余力地妖魔化美國，但是學(xué)校的外國教職人員中卻有一半來自美國。

????這所學(xué)校的學(xué)生均來自朝鮮精英階層，以高級官員或軍隊領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人的后代居多。平壤科技大學(xué)的運營經(jīng)費全部來自于捐助。學(xué)生無需繳納學(xué)費，教職員工也全部為志愿者。幾乎所有的教職員工，包括金鎮(zhèn)慶本人在內(nèi)，都是福音派基督徒。目前，朝鮮政府禁止有組織的宗教，但他們?nèi)詧允刈约旱男叛?。金?zhèn)慶和他的同事們相信，幫助朝鮮年輕人是上帝賦予他們的使命。

????當(dāng)然，金鎮(zhèn)慶也有一些眼前的擔(dān)憂。學(xué)校最初建設(shè)的大部分資金來自韓國的福音派基督徒，而他們中的大多數(shù)人都強烈反對共產(chǎn)主義——平壤方面一度對此視而不見。不過，平壤科技大學(xué)成立一年后，朝鮮炮轟韓國最北部的島嶼，導(dǎo)致韓朝關(guān)系急劇惡化。此后，金鎮(zhèn)慶便失去了資金來源，致使學(xué)生只有少量的科研設(shè)備可供學(xué)習(xí)使用。

????可以想見，金正日的去世可能會改變平壤與世界各國的關(guān)系，也會給金鎮(zhèn)慶的融資計劃帶來福音。如果說有誰可以成為連接朝鮮與外部世界的橋梁，也許非金鎮(zhèn)慶莫屬。他參加了金正日的葬禮，也是葬禮上為數(shù)不多的幾位美國人之一。在葬禮結(jié)束后，他還與金正日之子，朝鮮現(xiàn)任最高領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人——現(xiàn)年29歲的金正恩握手。之后不久，金鎮(zhèn)慶便飛往華盛頓，私下會見了美國國務(wù)卿希拉里?克林頓。朝美關(guān)系會不會“解凍”？對于筆者的這個問題，金鎮(zhèn)慶的回答：“我不知道?，F(xiàn)在說什么都還為時尚早?！?/p>

????On the morning late last year that North Korea announced the death of Kim Jong Il, who for 17 years had presided over the world's most isolated regime, James (Chin-Kyung) Kim, a 76-year-old Korean-American educator, was in an interesting place: his office in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. That alone is remarkable for a man who had in 1998 been a political prisoner of Kim Jong Il. But the fact that the institution James Kim created -- the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) -- is up and running in the heart of North Korea is a minor miracle.

????We wrote about Kim in September 2009. Construction was then under way on the barren spit of land due south of central Pyongyang where the university now sits. PUST is the only private university in that isolated country -- a tribute to Kim's doggedness. Born near Seoul, he fought in the Korean War and moved to the U.S. in the 1970s. Kim managed to persuade the North Korean leadership to buy into his vision: setting up a first-rate science and technical university in the capital that draws strictly on foreign scholars for its faculty.

????PUST -- which I visited for a few days just before Kim Jong Il died -- opened its doors in the fall of 2010. It now has 267 students, all male and 200 of whom are undergraduates. Classes are taught in English, and half the foreign faculty comes from the U.S., a country North Korea still relentlessly demonizes.

????The students are drawn from the country's elite, many the sons of senior officials in the ruling party or military officers. PUST depends on donations to survive. Students pay no tuition, and the faculty are all volunteers. Almost all, like James Kim himself, are evangelical Christians, living a spartan existence in a country where organized religion is banned. Nonetheless, Kim and his staff believe they are serving a higher calling by helping North Korean youth.

????Kim has more fundamental concerns at the moment. Much of the original funding to construct the school came from evangelical Christians in South Korea, the majority of whom are fervently anti-Communist -- something Pyongyang ignored. In the year after PUST opened, North Korea shelled one of the South's northernmost islands, and inter-Korean relations deteriorated. Not surprisingly, Kim's fundraising shriveled, leaving the students with very little scientific equipment to use.

????It's conceivable that Kim Jong Il's death could reset relations between Pyongyang and the world -- and improve Kim's fundraising. And if anyone could serve as a bridge between North Korea and the outside world, it's James Kim. He attended Kim Jong Il's funeral -- one of the few Americans present, if not the only one -- shaking hands afterward with Kim Jong Un, the 29-year-old son who is now the North's supreme leader. Not long after, James flew off to Washington for a private meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Is a thaw possible? I asked him recently. "I don't know yet," he said. "Too soon to tell."