North Korea Opens 15th National Teachers' Conference in Pyongyang, Kim Jong-un Emphasizes Education Priority

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has opened the 15th National Conference of Teachers in Pyongyang, with leader Kim Jong-un stressing the importance of education and touting teachers' role in advancing it, state media reported Thursday.

In his opening address a day earlier, Kim called education "the most important state affair that cannot and should not lag behind the work of any other fields" and praised teachers as "patriots" at the forefront of raising the country's next generation.

North Korea held the teachers' conference for the first time since February 2019.

Kim singled out members of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon, thanking them for serving as "champions of the right to national education" who have raised the community's youth "in the alien land" through patriotic devotion.

He described the education sector as standing at a critical juncture, noting changes in recent years to its system, content and environment, a shift he called nothing short of "a revolution."

"I reaffirm that education is the most important state affair and educators should be held in higher esteem than anyone else," he said.

At the conference, Premier Pak Thae-song reviewed the country's educational achievements and shortcomings over the past seven years, and outlined tasks for advancing the educational sector, according to the KCNA.

Pointing to "a series of deviations," Pak stressed the need to narrow the education gap between urban and rural areas, one of the key goals set by the Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in February.

The Rodong Sinmun, the North's most widely read newspaper, reported the previous day that educational projects have been under way to meet goals set out by the Congress.

Since the 14th teachers' conference, some 4,320 schools and kindergarten have been remodeled or newly built. Major universities, including Kim Il Sung University, have introduced a credit-based system, along with other education reforms, such as an integrated teaching management system, according to the paper.