The seminar was held in June in the Iris Hall of Yonsei University’s Sangnam Institute of Management. The YBRI(Yonsei Business Research Institute) and Yanbian University Economic Management Institute are joint sponsors of the seminar, which has been held annually since 2015. It focuses on understanding North Korean business and industry and their future development within the context of preparing for eventual unification. Participants in the Third North Korea Business Research Seminar were told "Koreans are not able to contribute to issues like world peace without premising theunification of the Korean peninsula."
In his opening address, Hyuck Seung Yang, director of the YBRI, a co-sponsor of the event, also remarked, “We hope that this seminar will have an important role in the process of creating a future blueprint for unification."
Zhonglin Li, dean of the College of Economics and Management at Yanbian University, gave a welcoming address, in which he acknowledged the current situation on the peninsula. "I know that the international situation and the situation on the Korean peninsula are in a harsh condition, yet in preparation for the future, I want to contribute to unification through research about North Korean business.”