The private project, funded by the W. Alton Jones Foundation in Virginia, is the first American non-governmental attempt to engage cooperatively with North Korea. Until now, non governmental organizations have been limited by both the American and the North Korean governments to delivering food aid to North Korea. Rural North Korea is highly militarized. To be working cooperatively at all in such a sensitive area was amazing. We were given full access to all the facilities and sites we requested in order to fulfill our operating requirements in this project.
Some difficulties remain, however.
One important issue to the American team was site safety and electrical hazard, both on the site, and in designing the system to integrate with the North Korean grid. North Korean electricity officials were reluctant to give us copies of the relevant laws relating to safety codes for electricity construction work and to environmental regulations. The Nautilus Institute is a non profit research and education organization based in Berkeley California sponsoring programs in security, energy, and environment in Asia.