Authorities prohibit economic burden on Chinese students
Furthermore, North Korean authorities have directed universities to avoid placing financial burdens on ethnic Chinese students, such as dormitory fees or administrative costs. The instructions emphasized that Chinese students returning to relatives in China during winter break to celebrate Lunar New Year should not face pressure to bring back financial support.
Authorities also urged in the directive to treat ethnic Chinese with wholehearted care, as if sharing warm affection with a neighboring country.
Following these directives, emergency meetings regarding ethnic Chinese support were held in cities and counties throughout North Korea.
The meetings mainly discussed how to treat ethnic Chinese more warmly, how to distribute firewood, how to simplify customs procedures, and how to establish oversight systems for universities to prevent economic burdens on ethnic Chinese students.
However, some North Koreans are expressing considerable dissatisfaction with these directives.
Young people in particular voiced resentment over the preferential treatment given to ethnic Chinese following Kim Jong Un’s trip to China, expressing frustration that authorities were prioritizing the relatively prosperous ethnic Chinese community while ordinary citizens struggled, and showing envy of their privileged status.
At the same time, some young people reacted strongly by connecting the ethnic Chinese support directive to recent foreign policy decisions made by authorities.
The source said, “A young man in his 20s in Hyesan exploded in anger over this directive, saying the government’s actions don’t make sense — rejecting 5,000 years of national history, calling South Korea a foreign country, making citizens die fighting for Russia, which is another country, and now revering ethnic Chinese like ancestors.”
Border region residents also made harsh criticisms, saying they would prefer North Korea to become a Chinese province to gain Chinese-level freedoms, and suggesting that since the country was already divided, it would be better to hand it over to China entirely and have Kim Jong Un serve merely as a provincial party secretary.
