Students formed a rather small part of the expat community in Pyongyang back in 1984. As I mentioned previously, most students from the socialist bloc came to North Korea for a year for language studies. Some students eventually enrolled at Kim Il Sung University as regular students, to graduate there, but this was mainly done by the Chinese.

In 1984-85 there were 31 students from different countries studying Korean at Kim Il Sung University. Apart from them, there were 22 Chinese teachers – they were there to improve their language skills. But these teachers steered well clear of us.