{"id":55823,"date":"2025-11-29T21:46:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T21:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55823\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T21:46:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T21:46:25","slug":"north-korea-makes-russian-a-required-foreign-language-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55823\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea makes Russian a required foreign language in schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea has mandated Russian as a foreign language for its elementary school children \u2013 a further sign of Moscow\u2019s increasing ties with the hermit kingdom <\/a>stemming from its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russian language has been introduced in Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea schools as a compulsory language for study from the 4th grade,\u201d said Alexander Kozlov, Russia\u2019s minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Interfax is reporting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"TeacherRussian has been made a mandatory school subject in North Korea beginning in the fourth grade. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It is unclear when the mandatory lessons in schools were expected to begin.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin official also said more than 3,000 Russian school children are currently learning Korean.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of them study Korean as a second or third foreign language,\u201d he said this week at a meeting of the intergovernmental commission in Moscow.<\/p>\n

The cooperation seems to go beyond elementary school, according to Kozlov, as the two allies \u2014 both facing increasing isolation from the West \u2014 are also collaborating in educating bankers, power engineers, doctors and geologists.<\/p>\n

The two nations have been\u00a0forging closer allegiances\u00a0<\/a>since Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine in 2022, with North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un deploying\u00a0more than 12,000 of his troops to fight on the front lines alongside Moscow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"KimThe leaders of the two countries have been growing closer since Putin\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. KCNA VIA KNS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

In August, South Korean intelligence warned<\/a>\u00a0Pyongyang was planning to\u00a0ship another 30,000 troops<\/a>\u00a0to bolster Putin\u2019s war machine, while also estimating North Korea was now\u00a0supplying almost half of Russia\u2019s ammunition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two leaders signed a mutual defense pact last year, when Putin visited the reclusive state, that was\u00a0hailed as their strongest connection since the Cold War<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Korea has mandated Russian as a foreign language for its elementary school children \u2013 a further sign…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27320,9,11,10,30382,9045,10780,1076],"class_list":{"0":"post-55823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-language","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-north-korea","13":"tag-russia","14":"tag-school","15":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}