This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now licensed for reprint.
A North Vietnamese inmate who resettled in South Korea claimed that North Korea has mandated that all students who travel overseas go home for intellectual training in order to stop the influence they have had on the outside.
The fugitive informed RFA Asian that he learned of the purchase from another inmate who had just arrived in South Korea and that he just wanted to be identified by the surname Kim for private security.  ,
He claimed to have been studying overseas in Russia. Then the government ordered him to transfer”, Kim said. His companion claims that Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader, gave the decree in July.
That prompted Kim’s friend to escape Russia for South Korea, he said.
According to North Korean media outlet KBS, it is unknown how many North Korean students are actually studying in China and Russia, but there are definitely several hundred. Before the pandemic struck in 2020, there were numerous survivors.
Authorities in Pyongyang reportedly worry that because they have been away from home for so much, they may have been influenced by the outside world, or at least become used to living in circumstances where their government is not in total control of their lives.
According to South Korean media, it had been customary for students to be ordered to return to devotion sessions on a regular basis, but this did not happen during the pandemic, so Pyongyang now wants to give them all for extensive intellectual inspections en mass.
According to Cho Han-Bum, a scientist at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification, some North Vietnamese students in China and Russia are more free than in North Korea, and this has led to the release of many of them.  ,
There were many instances in which these persons, whether voluntarily or not, broke the laws of the North Korean government because they stayed there for a long time. ” So, if they return home, there is a greater chance of being punished”.
Kim Geumhyuk, a former North Korean scholar in China who fled to South Korea in 2012, told RFA that the North Korean government is very concerned about losing power over the kids who have spent many years worldwide.
” Five times is a very long time”, he said. Given that these individuals have been outside the purview of North Korea for five years, I think the authorities there must have a greater concern of the kids than the individuals do of them. Therefore, the majority of them will harbor resentment toward the North Korean government.
The officials are concerned that these individuals may use information and facts that the government has tried to conceal to affect society in ways that are harmful to the current ruling system, he said.
Cho foresaw that the student understand attempt might cause a number of evacuations.
” Those people who are in China and Russia, such as officials, wealthy individuals, and staff are more likely to escape from North Korea”, he said. It is likely that students who were hiding in Russia may travel to South Korea if they are helped.
