South Korea’s Unification Ministry reported Thursday that North Korea has ordered all its overseas students to return home due to “political indoctrination.”
According to South Korean officials, the indoctrination sessions will take place at the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang in July and will focus on “strengthening loyalty to leader Kim Jong Un.” Radio Free Asia (RFA) Quote.
Grand People’s Study House Central Library The library in Pyongyang was opened in 1982 to mark the 70th birthday of the communist country’s first dictator, Kim Il-sung. It was billed as “the center of a project to intellectualize the whole of society and a sanctuary of learning for all the people.” Its collection includes foreign books, but subjects of the Kim dynasty must get special permission to read them.
structure Boast With 10 floors, 600 rooms and over 1 million square feet of floor space, it can educate a very large number of people. It is difficult to know the exact number of North Korean students studying abroad, but the United Nations I believe There are approximately 1,100 of them, mostly studying in China and Russia.
Kim Il-sung Square and the Grand People’s Study House are seen from the observation deck of the Juche Tower in Pyongyang, North Korea on August 24, 2018. (Karl Kort/Getty Images)
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said student indoctrination sessions were among the measures North Korea had “suspended due to the COVID-19 lockdown” but had now resumed. The last large-scale indoctrination sessions for overseas students were held in 2019. North Korea is fully Sealed The border During the pandemic.
South Korean media cited North Korean sources as saying that some of the international students “date, neglect their studies, [engaging in] “Any other acts deemed unpatriotic”
Korea JoongAng Ilbo Guessed Kim Jong Un wants to “strengthen control over the younger generation in their 20s and 30s to prevent ideological deviation,” and may be concerned about “the defection of the young elite,” he said Thursday.
North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un grimaces during a press conference in Pyongyang, North Korea, on June 19, 2024. (Contributor/Getty Images)
Defectors from North Korea 3 times When the regime began to reopen the border in 2023, defectors reported growing dissatisfaction with Kim Jong Un’s dictatorial regime as living conditions worsened.
The surge in defectors included an exceptionally large number of young people and members of the political elite who were also notable for their willingness to risk their lives to escape North Korea through dangerous means, including by sea to South Korea.
South Korean officials Said They had a vested interest in monitoring the impact of the administration’s indoctrination orders on students abroad, and perhaps they thought that some of them might be motivated to seek long-deferred freedoms out of fear of what would happen if they returned home.
The political indoctrination imposed on returning students is likely to include a renewed hatred for South Korea, and in particular its current president, Yoon Seok-yeo.
South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl during a press conference at the Binnenhof in The Hague, Netherlands, December 13, 2023. (Patrick van Katwijk/WireImage/Getty Images)
North Korea’s “Socialist Patriotic Youth League” Observed The Youth League’s activities include calling on young people, particularly North Korean youth traveling abroad, to call for Yun’s impeachment on the anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 2024. The Youth League has reportedly distributed anti-Yun indoctrination materials in North Korean classrooms, including information about South Korean student activists who call for Yun’s impeachment.
“The lectures based on this material begin by criticizing puppet South Korean president Yoon as a warmonger and fascist dictator, and also promote the idea that the youth struggle to impeach him is becoming a mass struggle,” the North Korean source said.
