Inside a Western university in North-Korea

American teachers at a university in North-Korea? It seems impossible, but the BBC made a report on Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, where Americans teach and where students can even enroll in an exchange program.

It took the BBC’s journalists 18 months before they were granted access to the institution. They made a video about the goings-on inside and talked to some of the students. Not only do Americans teach the students in a Western manner, the university has been founded by a Christian. According to several human rights organisations, Christians are being persecuted in North-Korea.

The aim is to equip the students with knowledge and skills to help modernize North-Korea. They learn things unknown to them like free market. In the video, it becomes clear that the students’ perception is still completely different from the Western view on the world. When the reporters ask if they know Michael Jackson, all he gets is blank faces.

Watch the video and read the BBC’s report here.