Language education policy in North Korea

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief linguistic history of Korea and describes the post-World War II division of Korea into North and South Korea. It discusses the North Korea as a monolingual country and outlines North Korea’s education system. The chapter explores North Korea’s language education policy, including Hanja ‘Chinese characters’ education and deals with remarks on the future of North Korea’s language education policy. Foreign language education was not an important item on North Korea’s education agenda. Reference to foreign language education in Kim Il Sung’s remark is reference to English in particular because, as pointed out earlier, it had by 1980 become the most important foreign language in North Korea. English language education also has been exploited as one of the many conduits for idolising Kim Il Sung and his family, and inculcating Juche into North Korean students. For the foreseeable future, two-tiered English language education may be the only option for North Korea.