Acceptable In The 80s: North Korea's 'Almost' Opening



Analysis Acceptable In The 80s: North Korea’s ‘Almost’ Opening With all the talk of "change" in North Korea, its easy to forget that many also thought "change" was well underway in the 1980s. Gianluca Spezza October 24, 2012 SHARE COPY LINK FACEBOOK X LINKEDIN MASTODON Andreas Taubert/Der Spiegel Where were you between 1983 and 1987? In these five years, a good number of North Korean officials, teachers and top students were already in Norway, Denmark and France, thanks to a UNESCO-coordinated project aimed at improving foreign languages and scientific learning in the DPRK. They were enjoying the privileges of studying abroad, and acquiring skills which they could then transfer back to North Korea. They were, in other words, undertaking programmes we might recognise as educational exchanges (even if there weren’t any western scholars doing the same in the DPRK at the time). Let’s pause for a minute and © Korea Risk Group. All rights reserved. No part of this content may be reproduced, distributed, or used for commercial purposes without prior written permission from Korea Risk Group. Get the Daily Update & Podcast Updates Start your day with the North Korea stories that matter most – as selected by Trending

Analysis

Acceptable In The 80s: North Korea’s ‘Almost’ Opening

With all the talk of "change" in North Korea, its easy to forget that many also thought "change" was well underway in the 1980s.

Gianluca Spezza October 24, 2012

Acceptable In The 80s: North Korea’s ‘Almost’ Opening

Andreas Taubert/Der Spiegel

Where were you between 1983 and 1987? In these five years, a good number of North Korean officials, teachers and top students were already in Norway, Denmark and France, thanks to a UNESCO-coordinated project aimed at improving foreign languages and scientific learning in the DPRK. They were enjoying the privileges of studying abroad, and acquiring skills which they could then transfer back to North Korea. They were, in other words, undertaking programmes we might recognise as educational exchanges (even if there weren’t any western scholars doing the same in the DPRK at the time).

Let’s pause for a minute and

About the Author

Gianluca Spezza

Gianluca Spezza earned his PhD in 2017 from the University of Central Lancashire under the supervision of Professor Hazel Smith, on the strength of research on the cooperation between UNICEF and the DPRK in education and childcare. Dr Spezza is an assistant professor of international relations and a senior researcher at the DPRK Strategy Center at KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan; he is writing a monograph on education, international cooperation, and human capital in North Korea (Palgrave 2021). His work on the DPRK, articles or interviews, can be found, among others, on the websites of the BBC, The Guardian, The Diplomat, IRIN News, NK News, DR.dk, Newsweek Korea, and El Confidential.

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