Two undergraduate professors at North Korea’s prestigious Kim Il Sung University are currently under investigation by a school committee for misconduct that occurred during the evaluation of a student’s academic dissertation, Daily NK has learned.
A sub-committee created by the school’s Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) committee is currently investigating the misconduct, sources in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Mar. 30.
MISCONDUCT REVEALED
According to Daily NK sources in Pyongyang, a student in the undergraduate natural sciences department at Kim Il Sung University was nominated to write a bachelor’s dissertation and participated in a dissertation defense administered by the national committee on Mar. 20.
North Korean undergraduate students typically write what is called a “candidate bachelor’s thesis” while graduate students in the country write “bachelor’s dissertations,” which are similar to master’s theses written by students in South Korea.
Some undergraduate students who have good grades and are writing on topics that contribute to the “national development” of the country in a significant way are reportedly allowed to write bachelor’s dissertations instead of candidate bachelor’s theses.
Candidate bachelor theses are evaluated by university committees, but bachelor dissertations are reviewed by a dedicated state-run committee. Only a student that has passed the oral examination and an interview (in both Korean and one foreign language) administered by this national committee can officially receive a graduate degree.
The two professors on the student’s dissertation committee were also present at the defense, but problems arose when the lower-ranking academic advisor struggled with the questions posed by members of the national committee.
The advisor in question was working in a field unrelated to the topic and failed to respond properly to questions posed by the committee in both Korean and English.
Suspecting that the advisor was involved in some sort of misconduct, the national committee alerted the Kim Il Sung University party committee to the issue.
An investigation by the university party committee found that the elder of the two advisors had purposely added a former student turned professor to the dissertation committee to help the man’s career.
The younger advisor was an assistant professor and university rules stipulate that assistant professors can only become full-time faculty members after taking part in a dissertation committee.
SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES
The misconduct was serious enough to warrant further investigation by a committee headed by Kim Il Sung University Vice-president Jong Man Ho. This committee has reportedly moved to investigate all of the dissertations advised by the elder professor and aims to conduct a broader crackdown on misconduct involving academic and personal relationships at the university.
The results of this major investigation into misconduct will reportedly be submitted to the Central Committee of the WPK before Apr. 15, Kim Il Sung’s birthday.
Kim Il Sung University’s party committee has reportedly stressed the seriousness of the misconduct by the two professors, calling their behavior “at odds with the 10 Principles (Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System)” and “unacceptable behavior” at a university that boast the country’s best scientific minds and the “honorable spirit” of the Suryong, or Kim Il Sung.
One of the clauses in the ninth tenet of the 10 Principles states that individuals must not remain silent on the issue of officials who promote or hinder other officials based on personal affiliations, whether with family members, friends, those with the same hometown, former mentors or former students.
“Faculty members involved in this recent misconduct will be criticized and given warnings from the party,” one source in the country told Daily NK.
“If the investigation finds they were involved in similar misconduct in the past, they’ll be stripped of their academic titles and lose their jobs,” he continued, adding, “If that happens, they’ll have to give up their Pyongyang apartments and live outside the capital city.”
*Translated by Violet Kim
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