North Korea closes universities

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Adam Blade

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Pyongyang has reportedly closed universities so students can work on new housing projects in the lead up to next year's centenary celebrations.

North Korea has reportedly closed its universities to most students and told them to start building as it ramps up a construction campaign ahead of its planned re-emergence next year as a "great and prosperous nation".

The UK ambassador to Pyongyang, Peter Hughes, told the Guardian that the almost year-long academic sacrifice was deemed necessary to reach production targets for new housing ahead of the centenary of founding president Kim Il-sung's birth.

To mark the occasion, Hughes said the government pledged to build 100,000 accommodation units in the North Korean capital, which has a chronic housing shortage.

"I think they have built maybe 10% of that ... Any country would be stretched to hit that accommodation target in two or three years," he said. "As far as we can tell they are going all out to achieve as much as they can before then."

Building work for such prestigious state events is normally carried out by the military, but construction teams are at full stretch on monuments, residential blocks and other projects.

North Korea has also recommenced work on the 105-storey Ryugong skyscraper, which was started in 1987 and was then halted during the years of starvation and economic hardship. Foreign engineers have been called in for consultation and the authorities have promised to finish the building by 2012.

There has been no mention of the mobilisation in the domestic media. Japan's Kyodo news agency has reported that all universities, except for graduating seniors and foreign students, had to cancel classes until next year.

University World News said universities would be closed for up to 10 months from 27 June while students were dispatched to farms, factories and construction sites.

The last time this is known to have happened for such a length of time was during the famines of the late 1990s. The food situation in the country remains precarious. Earlier this year, the UN launched an appeal for humanitarian aid.

Hughes said the universities remained open, but many students were being shifted to outside tasks.

"They are already out there building things. It's difficult to know exactly what," he said. "This has happened before, but for maybe a month or two. The only unusual thing is that they are out for 10 months."
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No party like a North Korea party because a North Korea party don't stop...

because there's no school.
 
Stumpokapow said:
the only thing worse than a BA in tourism...

...

a BA in north korean tourism
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it'd be fuckin' hilarious if you could actually study tourism in north korea.
 
Zzoram said:
Foreign students? People pay to go to North Korean Universities?



W T F
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I believe that some friendly nations such as Myanmar have exchange programmes. They also used to invite African students from countries such as Zimbabwe until their promiscuous ways horrorified Kim Senior's minions.
 
This is why North Korea is the best. Who wouldn't want an extended summer break? We should all be a little jealous.
 
Funky Papa said:
I believe that some friendly nations such as Myanmar have exchange programmes. They also used to invite African students from countries such as Zimbabwe until their promiscuous ways horrorified Kim Senior's minions.
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lol! Tea shop girl was feeling the fever!

But yeah, I too am shocked and confused at there being foreign students in the universities. I'm mildly surprised that they even have universities. What kind of job does a degree get you over there?
 
DUW4d.jpg
 
qcf x2 said:
lol! Tea shop girl was feeling the fever!

But yeah, I too am shocked and confused at there being foreign students in the universities. I'm mildly surprised that they even have universities. What kind of job does a degree get you over there?
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BA in Peasantry and a Minor in Toil....
 
This is all that I could find

Ch'ŏngjin Medical University
Ch'ŏngjin Mine and Metal University
Ch'ŏngjin University of Pedagogy No.1 (Oh Joong-heup University)
Ch'ŏngjin University of Technology
Hamhŭng University of Education
Hamhŭng University of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Hamhŭng University of Chemical Technology
Huichon University of Telecommunications
University of Natural Science
Kim Chaek University of Technology
Kim Il-sung University
Kim Hyung-jik University of Pedagogy
Koryo Songgyungwan University
Pyongyang Medical University
Pyongyang University of Architecture and Building Materials
Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies
Pyongyang University of Music and Dance
Pyongyang University of Printing Engineering
Pyongyang University of Railroad Engineering
Pyongyang University of Science and Technology
Rajin University of Marine Transport
Wonsan Agricultural University
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qcf x2 said:
lol! Tea shop girl was feeling the fever!

But yeah, I too am shocked and confused at there being foreign students in the universities. I'm mildly surprised that they even have universities. What kind of job does a degree get you over there?
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North Korea has a burgeoning software industry. You probably couldn't believe how many apps and shit Flash games are being coded there for peanuts.

There are also some machinery, chem and electronics factories.
 
By the way people--check the sourcing of all this news. The Guardian really is awful at foreign news reporting (AKA re-reporting) and this is no exception. The source, University World News doesn't even say that this is happening, the schools closed for summer and then it wonders if they are going to be shut down for a year for construction, putting that out as speculation that it is happening, and then asks experts, which leads them to say, "Experts on North Korea said full-scale university closures would be unprecedented. However, it was not unusual for students to be engaged in manual labour, with the academic year sometimes shortened in order to send students onto farms and construction sites."

And it also has this, from a Columbia University professor who was just in North Korea:

However, students were studying as normal at PUST, a postgraduate institution funded by Korean-American and South Korean philanthropists that teaches mainly engineering.

"It is very hard to get information in and out of the country and there may be some confusion because every summer students have to go down to the fields to help with the rice planting. It is not the first time that I have heard reports that universities have shut down for a period," Armstrong said.

"My impression is that there is not a lot going on in terms of teaching and studying in public universities and student time is taken up with 'extra curricular' activities including political education. This is a regular part of university life but I have not heard of the universities being shut down completely except for a short while during the 1990s [famine]," he added.
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And this:

Hazel Smith, professor of security and resilience at Cranfield University who also lectures at Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University, said North Korean universities were operating as usual in and outside the capital when she was there in May.

She said it would be counterproductive for the regime to close universities. Despite huge labour shortages throughout the country, the regime is "fully aware that people need to be taught IT and technology and of course nuclear [engineering].

"They are dependent to fulfill their economic goals on people who are computer literate and engaged in advanced science. I don't think [closures] will last very long. There are too many other priorities to deal with."
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http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110630144003329

Don't always take what's posted on GAF as fact.
 
For whom are they producing software?

Hazel Smith, professor of security and resilience at Cranfield University who also lectures at Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University...
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Whoa, what a strange job she has.
 
numble said:
By the way people--check the sourcing of all this news. The Guardian really is awful at foreign news reporting (AKA re-reporting) and this is no exception. The source, University World News
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It's also cited to the British ambassador to NK.
 
spiderman123 said:
This is all that I could find
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Curious what they actually teach in all those. Each class has it's own fictional book on how Kim Jong-Il or Kim Il-sung created each subject?
 
aswedc said:
It's also cited to the British ambassador to NK.
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Yes, and the British Ambassador says that there is no word that it has happened, only that students have been used for construction work.

It's just a bunch of people speculating as to whether or not this summer break is going to last until 2012.

But any mass use of student labour for longer than the summer vacation months would mean a trade-off against achieving economic goals that required educated workers, he said.
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However, experts agreed that the possibility of universities being shut would be an ominous sign of tension. "The most likely reason [to shut universities down completely] would be for military mobilisation if they thought they were going to be attacked," Smith said.
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I was surprised they even have universities. Thought they disliked intellectuals, philosophers, academics and their like. Those are usually the trouble makers in any repressive country.
 
RustyNails said:
I was surprised they even have universities. Thought they disliked intellectuals, philosophers, academics and their like. Those are usually the trouble makers in any repressive country.
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Tanks and radars don't make themselves. Nor high rises.
 
Funky Papa said:
Tanks and radars don't make themselves. Nor high rises.
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Dear Leader can do all those things with eyes closed and hands tied while upside down while listening to Dethklok. Who needs universities??!
 
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