North Korea has mandated Russian as a foreign language for its elementary school children – a further sign of Moscow’s increasing ties with the hermit kingdom stemming from its invasion of Ukraine.
“The Russian language has been introduced in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea schools as a compulsory language for study from the 4th grade,” said Alexander Kozlov, Russia’s minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Interfax is reporting.
Kozlov, who is co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission between Moscow and Pyongyang, said Russian is typically one of the three most popular foreign languages in North Korea, with about 600 people currently studying it.
It is unclear when the mandatory lessons in schools were expected to begin.
The Kremlin official also said more than 3,000 Russian school children are currently learning Korean.
“Most of them study Korean as a second or third foreign language,” he said this week at a meeting of the intergovernmental commission in Moscow.
The cooperation seems to go beyond elementary school, according to Kozlov, as the two allies — both facing increasing isolation from the West — are also collaborating in educating bankers, power engineers, doctors and geologists.
The two nations have been forging closer allegiances since Russian President Vladmir Putin’s war in Ukraine in 2022, with North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un deploying more than 12,000 of his troops to fight on the front lines alongside Moscow.
In August, South Korean intelligence warned Pyongyang was planning to ship another 30,000 troops to bolster Putin’s war machine, while also estimating North Korea was now supplying almost half of Russia’s ammunition.
The two leaders signed a mutual defense pact last year, when Putin visited the reclusive state, that was hailed as their strongest connection since the Cold War.
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