James Chin-Kyung Kim still seems amazed at his most singular accomplishment: the founding of the North Korea’s Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. The university, which promises to be an centre of open international scholarship in a country that has closed itself off from the world for several decades running, will open the doors to its first few hundred students on 1 April.

“It’s a miracle,” Kim proclaimed more than once Monday evening, each time posting a huge grin and nearly jolting himself out of his chair at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington. “It was an absolutely impossible mission.”

That would seem an apt description, but for the fact that it is clearly false. The North Korean government formally blessed PUST last year, and Kim, a South Korean who also holds citizenship in the United States, China and North Korea, will serve as its first president. With support from both Korean governments, PUST represents a step toward reconciliation, he says.

Nor is it the first time that Kim has overcome long odds in pursuit of big ideas. In fact, it isn’t even the first time he has raised money to establish a university in a communist country. The Yanbian Institute of Science and Technology opened its doors across the boarder in China in 1992.

For more on how all of this came about, see the profile in Science last September (subscription required). In terms of managing the bureaucracy, Kim says he has two rules: steer clear of politics and business ventures. One trip to jail aside, the strategy worked. He was then able to provide a simple solution to a long-standing problem. The government wants to educate its youth, but sending students abroad would mean losing them. So why not bring a modern international university to the students?

That logic prevailed, and the government has agreed to maintain the school as a special district where information, people and materials flow unhindered. Then again, the university has its borders, and apparently the limits of this openness remain to be defined. Kim was stumped by one question about how this dynamic will play out when it comes to thorny issues like geopolitics. After a long pause, he said “I don’t know.”

His strategy appears to be one of small steps, guided by the notion that nothing will change without education. And he is eagerly calling for help. The university is still looking for teachers, particularly in English – the core language for classes. PUST is also looking for money, partners and volunteers, and Kim invited a several attendees to join the team on Monday.

Back on track, Kim smiled and promised not only visas but three meals a day to students and scholars alike.