North Korea’s Ministry of Education has ordered foreign language schools nationwide to cut back on English classes and expand Russian instruction. Sources link the 2026 directive to Pyongyang’s deepening ties with Moscow.
A source in Ryanggang province told Daily NK on Thursday that the ministry issued the order in mid-August. It instructed foreign language schools in each province to add more Russian classes. As a result, the Ryanggang province foreign language school will reorganize its first-year classes starting Oct. 1, the source said.
The school currently runs two English classes per grade, plus one Russian class and one Chinese class, the source said. Under the new directive, some first-year English classes will be converted to Russian starting in October.
Broader curriculum shift planned for 2027
The school also plans to expand its share of Russian majors starting with students entering in 2027, in line with ministry policy. Even Russian majors will keep studying English as a second foreign language, the source added.
The Ministry of Education described the goal as “increasing the ranks of multilingual speakers.” Foreign language schools — specialized secondary institutions that provide intensive language instruction and serve as a pipeline to Pyongyang’s top universities — have long taught a second language alongside each student’s major under a policy meant to cultivate multilingual talent, and the state has hosted nationwide competitions to showcase it.
The shift may be driven by more than multilingual education, however. Cuts to English and the growth in Russian instruction aim to train professional Russian speakers for demand tied to North Korea-Russia exchange.
Cooperation between the two countries has grown beyond the military sphere into economic, social and cultural fields in recent years. That has driven demand for interpreters, translators and other professionals fluent in Russian. Authorities appear to be turning to specialized language schools to train personnel suited to that need.
Parents worry over language assignments
News of the reorganization has unsettled parents, many of whom fear a Russian assignment, the source said. Ryanggang province borders China, and Chinese is widely seen there as more useful than Russian for work and daily life.
“Chinese is by far the most popular foreign language in Ryanggang province,” the source said. “It’s close to the border, and trading agencies are also looking for many Chinese interpreters.”
Many parents whose children have been studying English feel a move to Russian would disadvantage them, the source added. Some have said they would pull their children from the foreign language school and enroll them in a regular school instead if the major were changed.
Parents send their children to foreign language schools for advanced language instruction. Graduates also have a better shot at admission to Pyongyang’s top central universities than students from regular schools do. Still, some parents see little reason to stay enrolled if their child must study a language they did not choose, the source said.
Russian language education has been in steady decline in North Korea since the Soviet collapse in 1991. A significant number of middle and high schools currently offer no Russian classes at all.
Still, exchange between North Korea and Russia continues to expand amid their deepening rapprochement. Attention is now turning to whether the push for Russian education will spread beyond specialized institutions to general schools as well.
Reporting from inside North Korea
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September 5, 2026 at 02:23AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)