North Korea has formalized a system requiring institutions, enterprises, and ordinary citizens to financially support state education through a newly obtained law, shifting the cost of educational development away from the central government and onto local bodies and the public.
Daily NK has obtained the full text of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Law on Education Support, adopted by the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly on Dec. 21, 2023, and subsequently revised on June 10, 2025. The amended law, comprising 29 articles, covers the definition and principles of education support, the donation, registration, and management of funds, the duties of sponsoring organizations, performance evaluations, preferential treatment, and penalties.
An analysis of the revised law indicates that while North Korean authorities frame the legislation as establishing a culture of social support for education, the law in practice makes donations to education funds compulsory in all but name, extending obligations to institutions, enterprises, organizations, and individual citizens alike. The structure suggests a deliberate effort to distribute the financial burden of education investment away from the central government and onto local entities and the North Korean people.
All schools eligible for funding, electronic transfers permitted
The law defines education support as “social assistance and support for educational work and its development, including the construction of educational institutions, the improvement of educational conditions and environments, and the enhancement of teachers’ qualifications.” The Education Support Fund refers to all money and materials donated by institutions, enterprises, organizations, and citizens for the advancement of education.
The law’s guiding principle is to establish a social culture in which all of society becomes “enthusiastic parent supporters” of educational work. Overall guidance for education support activities falls under the unified direction of the Cabinet, with the central education guidance organ, local people’s committees, and relevant agencies sharing responsibility.
A notable feature of the law is the breadth of institutions eligible to receive donations. Listed recipients include not only kindergartens, primary schools, lower and upper secondary schools, and universities, but also orphanages, schools for people with disabilities, students’ palaces, youth camps, community youth centers, vocational schools, sports schools, and arts academies. In effect, virtually every education-related institution in North Korea qualifies as a recipient.
The law also specifies the methods by which donations may be made. Donors may contribute directly to their alma mater or another educational institution, or channel donations through the education support fund management body or the education department of the local people’s committee. Notably, electronic payment is also authorized, a detail that reflects the expanding role of digital transactions in North Korean society.
The law explicitly states that foreign companies, international organizations, foreign nationals, and overseas Koreans may also donate to the Education Support Fund, a provision understood to contemplate educational funding from the international community.
Donated funds must be deposited into a dedicated education support fund account, which is exempt from financial service fees. Donated materials must be recorded by item name, quantity, and monetary value based on state-set prices, and receiving institutions are required to issue a donation certificate to the donor.
Choe Kyubin, a professor at Handong Global University in Pohang, South Korea, told Daily NK that while fund donation is framed as encouraged rather than mandatory, “for lower-level local units, it can effectively function as pressure.” He noted that prior education law had already allowed education support work to be distributed among institutions, enterprises, and organizations, but said the revised law “goes one step further by formalizing education support fund work as a mandatory obligation.”
Sponsoring organizations bear ‘social duty,’ performance tracked
The most consequential aspect of the law may be its effective institutionalization of mandatory sponsorship. The law defines sponsoring organizations as “institutions, enterprises, and organizations bearing a social duty to undertake support work for a given educational institution.” The Cabinet, the central education guidance organ, and local people’s committees are tasked with designating a sponsoring organization for each educational institution. Depending on the size and regional characteristics of an institution, a single sponsoring organization may be assigned responsibility for one or two schools.
Organizations designated as sponsors are required to monitor the management and operational conditions of their assigned schools on an ongoing basis and resolve problems as they arise. Concentrated support must also be provided during the “school support months” of March and October.
A performance evaluation system has also been established. Funds and materials provided by sponsoring organizations to educational institutions are to be reflected in economic performance assessments. Institutions, enterprises, organizations, and citizens who have made notable contributions to education support work are eligible for state commendations and preferential treatment, including study tours and tourism. Media organizations are required to publicize and promote exemplary cases of support through newspapers, radio, and television.
The law does not, however, specify concrete evaluation criteria, leaving room for arbitrary judgment in the oversight and enforcement process.
Misuse of funds punishable by unpaid labor, criminal prosecution
Penalties are laid out across four articles. While previous education law contained no separate penalty provisions related to education support, the revised law introduces a graduated system of sanctions ranging from warnings to criminal liability.
A formal warning is issued when the registration, accumulation, or disbursement of education support funds is mishandled in a way that disrupts education support work, or when failure to properly issue donation certificates or commendations causes social problems. More serious cases warrant a “stern warning.”
Unpaid labor of up to three months is the penalty for misappropriating or illegally processing education support funds, damaging donated materials, or refusing without justification to fulfill a request from an educational institution for funds. More serious cases may result in sentences exceeding three months. Demotion, dismissal, or removal from office is authorized when violations of education support order produce grave consequences, while criminal acts are subject to legal accountability under the criminal code.
Choe said North Korea tends to view education disparities as a matter of local responsibility or individual teacher quality rather than a structural problem, adding that through the Education Support Law, “the authorities can shift the burden of improving local educational conditions and environments onto the North Korean people through increased mobilization, under the pretext of improving educational conditions.”
He also noted that while prior education law contained no separate penalty provisions for education support, the revised law “stipulates a wide range of sanctions from simple warnings to criminal prosecution,” adding that the change “is concerning in that education support legislation may be used as a tool to control institutions and organizations, potentially worsening the human rights situation of the North Korean people.”
North Korea’s 2011 Higher Education Law required local institutions, enterprises, and organizations to coordinate with educational institutions to resolve problems, and its 2021 County and City Development Law similarly required city and county people’s committees to materially support schools and promote education support work. While encouraging support for educational institutions is not new, the enactment of standalone legislation formalizing the support system and introducing penalties signals that the financial demands on the education sector have grown substantially.
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April 4, 2026 at 12:58AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)