Artwork by NK NEWS illustrator Cammy Smithwick

In part two of our special three-part series featuring Aliou Niane, a Guinean who studied at Wonsan agricultural college in North Korea from 1982-1987, we take a look at the institutionalized racism of the North Korean state and the ways in which this ethnocentrism-cum-racism affected the lives of African foreign students studying in North Korea in the 1980s.

Aliou could never date a North Korean girl. During the first week in Pyongyang, Mr. Lee, the minder for the Guinean students, held a Q&A welcome meeting. One of the Guinean students asked, “Can I have a