{"id":55326,"date":"2023-06-09T18:00:35","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T09:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=55326"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:49:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:49:57","slug":"n-korea-suspends-classes-for-elementary-school-students-in-some-regions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/n-korea-suspends-classes-for-elementary-school-students-in-some-regions\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korea suspends classes for elementary school students in some regions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korea recently suspended classes for elementary school students in certain regions of the country to mobilize them for rice planting, leading to complaints from their parents, Daily NK has learned.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cKaechon declared May 10 to May 31 a general mobilization period for rice planting and mobilized everyone in the city to engage in farmwork,\u201d a Daily NK source in South Pyongan Province said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. \u201cStudents took part in the mobilization, with the classes being suspended from May 20 to May 31.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the source, students helped plant rice from 2 PM to 8 PM, after their classes had ended for the day. From May 20, however, their classes were suspended entirely, and they had to spend all day in the fields.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For years, North Korean authorities have mobilized young students to help plant rice under the slogan that \u201ceveryone who eats rice must help out.\u201d However, parents have grown increasingly upset at how their children are forced into the fields to do work even adults find difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is not the first time the authorities have suspended classes for students, either. The authorities justify the measure by saying, \u201cWe can fight against the enemy and win only if there\u2019s a lot of food.\u201d However, some people are quietly criticizing the government\u2019s violation of their children\u2019s right to access education, saying that the nation\u2019s people \u201cneed to fight and win by using their brains.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Some students get out of mobilizations through bribes<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Broadly speaking, North Korea&#8217;s education system is heavily discriminatory towards those without money to spare. This year, as in the past, the children of the country\u2019s wealthy entrepreneurial class, or <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">donju<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the offspring of cadres often got out of the rice planting campaign by slipping their teachers money, the source said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPoor students were all mobilized to the fields because they would be treated as ideologically problematic if they missed even a single day.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Students who took part in the rice planting mobilizations even had to prepare boxed lunches every day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe problem is that there are many poor families that substitute watery gruel for meals because they can\u2019t even put a single meal on the table,\u201d the source said. \u201cGiven these circumstances, parents who have to prepare boxed lunches for their children every day have no choice but to complain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite this situation, North Korean authorities continue to adhere to \u201cprinciples.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf students miss even a single day of mobilizations due to life circumstances or health reasons, [the authorities] convene an ideological struggle session and shame them with intensive criticism,\u201d the source said. \u201cRather than being focused [on political ideology], I think the government\u2019s duty is to first fill their people\u2019s bellies before putting them to work, even if the food is just maize mixed with rice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK\u2019s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/faq\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20230605-2\/\"><i>Read in Korean<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korea recently suspended classes for elementary school students in certain regions of the country to mobilize them for rice planting, leading to complaints from their parents, Daily NK has learned.\u00a0 \u201cKaechon declared May 10 to May 31 a general mobilization period for rice planting and mobilized everyone in the city to engage in farmwork,\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":55327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[869,1360,67],"tags":[703,729,1656,123],"class_list":["post-55326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-agriculture","category-society","category-news","tag-education","tag-students","tag-dprk","tag-farming"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. Korea suspends classes for elementary school students in some regions - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/n-korea-suspends-classes-for-elementary-school-students-in-some-regions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"N. Korea suspends classes for elementary school students in some regions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"North Korea recently suspended classes for elementary school students in certain regions of the country to mobilize them for rice planting, leading to complaints from their parents, Daily NK has learned.\u00a0 \u201cKaechon declared May 10 to May 31 a general mobilization period for rice planting and mobilized everyone in the city to engage in farmwork,\u201d [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/n-korea-suspends-classes-for-elementary-school-students-in-some-regions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-09T09:00:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-05T06:49:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/06\/5015258197_6a28bcbe82_b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lee Chae Eun\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lee Chae Eun\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/n-korea-suspends-classes-for-elementary-school-students-in-some-regions\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/n-korea-suspends-classes-for-elementary-school-students-in-some-regions\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lee Chae Eun\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6c9f40b0a89c4a5354607f43756dbbe0\"},\"headline\":\"N. 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