China Communicates with North Korea (A Think)

The Washington Post is reporting that China has sent a “strong message” to North Korea not to continue with its nuclear program. The article states:

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and other Chinese officials did not provide details of the meeting on Thursday between a Chinese envoy and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. But Li pointedly told reporters after meeting with Rice that China will "continue to implement our relevant international obligations and exert our due role in this process."

According to the article, China has encouraged North Korea to return to simultaneous negotiations with numerous other nations, including the United States and China.

Lesson Ideas:

1. Ask your students if they have ever witnesses a negotiation between two people. Ask them to write a decriptive essay in which they explain what they saw. They might blog these essays. Tell students to make these essays as descriptive as possible. After they have finished writing these essays invite several students to read them. You might ask students to explain the point of negotiation. Is it ok to negotiate?

2. Tell your students to pretend that they have been approaced by the White House to issue an opinion as to whether or not the United States should enter into bi-lateral negotiations with North Korea. Tell them the White House wants to see both pros and cons. You might have students work in groups to develops these ideas. You might also have them develop a Power Point (or something similar) presentation so that they can clearly present the two sides of the issue. (Determine whether or not you want to require students to actually issue an opinion.)

3. Students likely know very little about the border between China and North Korea. Tell them to pretend that they work for National Geographic. They have been assigned the responsibility of preparing a news segment, for television, describing the border to the public. What types of cultures surround it? What are the physical characteristics? What about the human-made characteristics? Encourage students to use props. You might video tape these presentations and post them on line. (Ask students if they think it's important to understand the border between China and North Korea to understand the relationship between these two countries. Why/why not?)

4. Obviously the United States and North Korea do not get along. Ask your students to explain possible reasons that these two nations don't get alone. You might invite them to develop a graphic organizer highlighting the differences between these two nations. You could then tell them that they have been hired by a world peace organization to determine how you can build bridges between the American people and the North Korean people to help ensure that this animosity does not continue forever. In groups they can make proposals.

Edit and expand upon these lesson ideas at our Lesson-Wiki.