North Korea’s Ministry of Education has singled out North Hamgyong province for a sweeping anti-corruption drive after the province posted some of the country’s worst results in a national student talent competition held in April 2026. Officials blame the poor performance on pervasive bribery in provincial schools, but teachers on the ground say the crackdown ignores the punishing conditions they work under and are now talking about leaving the profession altogether.
A source in North Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Monday that a nationwide talent selection competition for senior middle school students (the North Korean equivalent of high school) ran from April 5 to 23, with results announced in early May. North Hamgyong placed near the bottom of the national rankings. The ministry responded with a sharp rebuke, reportedly asking whether “all of North Hamgyong’s gifted students had simply been idling.”
Ministry report exposes cash-for-placement schemes
The Ministry of Education, a cabinet-level body responsible for overseeing the country’s school system, determined that bribery, not a lack of talent, explained the province’s poor showing. It circulated a report detailing specific corrupt practices in North Hamgyong’s school system.
The most serious problem the report identified was unqualified students buying their way into specialty tracks at senior middle schools. The source said the ministry specifically named Chongjin No. 1 Senior Middle School as the origin point of a bribery culture that had since spread across the entire province.
The report went further, spelling out specific bribe amounts tied to placement in the “natural sciences” track. A homeroom teacher could expect $100, while a provincial education inspector responsible for vetting admissions could receive $300 or more.
Entry into particularly prized specialty tracks, such as “information technology” or “nuclear physics,” required more than money alone. Applicants needed sign-offs from the school principal, deputy principal, homeroom teacher, a security officer, and a Socialist Patriotic Youth League official (the state-run youth organization that monitors student conduct). Each sign-off came at a price. The security officer’s endorsement, which certified that no family members had illegally crossed the border or defected to South Korea, and the youth league official’s character certification each reportedly carried a bribe equivalent to the value of several cartons of cigarettes.
The Ministry of Education labeled these practices an act of “sabotage against the party’s education policy” and an “anti-party act,” and pledged to crack down hard on bribery in North Hamgyong’s specialty track admissions process.
Teachers push back, threaten to quit
The ministry’s announcement did not go over well among teachers in the province. According to the source, educators have been openly voicing frustration, arguing that Pyongyang applies central-level standards uniformly without acknowledging the vast gap between conditions in the capital and those in the provinces. Teachers say they work without rations and point out that bribery is less a choice than a survival strategy.
Some teachers implicated in the scandal are reportedly moving to resign before facing formal punishment, preferring to leave the profession outright. Others have gone further, saying they would rather earn a living trading at a market stall than continue teaching under these conditions.
The episode underscores a broader tension between Pyongyang’s periodic anti-corruption campaigns and the structural conditions, including chronic underfunding, absent state salaries, and no food rations, that make informal payments a de facto part of how provincial institutions function.
Reporting from inside North Korea
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May 18, 2026 at 03:43PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)