How North Korea is striving to prepare for its future: part 2

Analysis

How North Korea is striving to prepare for its future: part 2

A look at how education and information technology will shape North Korea's future

Gianluca Spezza August 22, 2013

How North Korea is striving to prepare for its future: part 2

NK News

In part one of this mini-series, we have seen how North Korea is trying to project a renewed image of itself as a country at the forefront of scientific innovation and educational development. We have also seen how this relatively new topic in domestic propaganda periodically raises hopes of change among western observers. Such hopes however, seem biased by our expectations of how North Korea may want to reform and what the ICT revolution could, in theory, bring to the country.

I have argued that, given the state of things in North Korea, we cannot hope to see meaningful changes take place simply because a growing number of Pyongyang residents have access to foreign DVDs and magazines.

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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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