Artwork by NK NEWS illustrator Cammy Smithwick

From the 1960s to the 1980s, North Korea established connections with many developing world nations in a global struggle to garner UN votes. In an attempt to export the Juche ideology around the world, the DPRK invited a number of African nations to send students to North Korean universities. While the experiences of these African students in North Korea have previously been unknown, a May 2009 interview on One Free Korea briefly exposed the life of a Guinean student by the name of Aliou Niane, who studied at Wonsan