Essay 4

Smart appliances such as S5, Note 4 and Tab S are the latest products in Samsung Galaxy series. As these technological gadgets become a necessity of the South Korean youths, many North Korean teenagers living in their isolated communist world may not even know about the existence of these modern products. The level of information and communications technology (ICT) in Democratic People’s Republic of  Korea (DPRK) is awfully low, with more than 93% of its population without access to mobile cellular (Central Intelligence Agency, 2011). In contrast, the number of mobile phones in the South is 5% more than the number of South Koreans (Park, 2011), and more than 80% of the youths aged below 20 possesses at least one smartphone in 2012 (Singh, 2013). This strict control by the communist government makes it difficult for the North Koreans to bridge the digital gap in Korean Peninsula. Thus, self-funded student exchanges, which do not restrict their programmes to rich elites and allow foreign students to interact with local students during their respective study trips in DPRK and overseas, are important to equip more DPRK’s students with ICT skills so that their employability in the future will not be diminished when they are compared to the Internet-savvy South Koreans.

Although there is a state-owned 3G mobile operator, Koryolink, in the Stalinist DPRK (Williams, 2011), only around 1% of the entire population has subscribed to this only network operator. This is because after the Ryongchon train explosion in 2004, the SunNet 2G network was banned by the political authorities (Laxon, 2011). Furthermore, the communist government contains and surveils the underdeveloped telecommunication system in DPRK, so North Koreans’ opportunity to gain ICT knowledge is deprived (Lee, 2012).

According to Carr (n.d.), the ICT education for our young students is extremely important as the use of ICT will increase the students’ participation and engagement in learning, and this will improve their academic achievement. Moreover, Mid-Pacific ICT Centre reports that more than 85.2% of the employers they surveyed have agreed that “digital literacy” should be a fundamental ability that every student possesses after they complete their studies (MPICT, n. d.). The lack of digital literacy among the North Korean students has a great adverse impact on their career prospects of these youths. This is because the inadequate ICT skills of a North Korean worker will cause him to be in a disadvantaged position when he is compared to a digitally literate South Korean. Although most corporations in DPRK are state-owned enterprises (SOEs), they have strong motivation to maximise their profits like any other private enterprises as the communist government of DPRK has allowed them to reserve 70% of their profits (Ishida, 2012). As a result, in the recent years, there is a growing number of SOEs which source for employees who have the ICT skills (Williams, 2014). This is because these SOEs want to collaborate with Russian and Chinese companies which want to maximise their profits with the ICT experts. Thus, most SOEs in DPRK will more likely to employ a candidate who is ICT-savvy, and North Korean students without the ICT knowledge may have difficulty to find a job in the future, even if they do not seek employment overseas. 

Due to such potential employment crises in the near future, many North Koreans, who live near the Chinese borders, are willing to bear the risk of using Chinese mobile phones and network connection illegally (Kim, 2014). Also, according to Global Resource & Information Directory (2014), several of DPRK’s “elite youths” try to attain “desired jobs” by hacking in websites and writing computer and software viruses to showcase their ICT skills. Such acts reveal the frustration and helplessness of the younger generation in DPRK due to their lack in ICT access that is needed for their future employment.

Although the local youths cannot free themselves from the restrictive communist environment, young and resourceful intellectuals who empathize these North Korean students can establish student exchange programmes to expose these youths to the ICT world. For instance, Geoffrey, a student from Wharton School, established the Singapore-registered Choson Exchange in 2010. This project has successfully allowed a group of bright and enterprising youths in DPRK to possess business, economic and legal knowledge by participating in the overseas internships programmes (“Choson Exchange”, 2014). However, as these programmes are not subsidised or sponsored by the communist government, they may only benefit a small minority of rich and talented students. To benefit more students, the exchanges should bring foreign students with relevant ICT skills into DPRK to share their ICT knowledge with the local students. Pyongyang Project is a social enterprise founded by two Canadian young entrepreneurs, Reichel and Young. Its travel programmes not only allow the young DPRK’s students to travel and engage in knowledge exchange and educational tourism with overseas universities and organisations, such as Tufts University and Young Presidents’ Organisation, they also allow international students to attend study tours in DPRK. Such study trips allow more North Korean students to learn the ICT culture, such as E-Learning and digital textbooks, from the international students of neighbouring countries, China, Russia and South Korea (“Pyongyang Project”, 2013). More importantly, the fees paid by the foreign participants can fund the other overseas initiatives in Pyongyang Project so that these programmes do not depend on other organisations for financial sponsorship. Thus, more North Korean students with different abilities and backgrounds will not be denied the opportunity to participate in these exchange programmes because of their differences in financial capabilities.

Since the North Koreans are not able to obtain their travel visas so easily, the programmes can include homestays as a part of their overseas trips so that the North Korean students can enhance their overseas experience from the short-period exchanges, This will give the North Korean students the opportunity to experience the life of a true member of the ICT world. Surrounded by the abundant ICT equipment in a home environment, the North Korean youths will have a better understanding of the impact of the digital culture on the various aspects of one’s life.

The digital divide within the Korean peninsula has an adverse economic impact on the future generation. Thus, these profit-generating student exchanges provide the North Korean youths a gateway to the digital world as they can expose more students to the ICT technology in multiple ways and bridge the digital gap between North and South Korea.

References:

Carr, A. (n.d.). Naace: ICT in Education is important! Retrieved October 25, 2014, from http://www.naace.co.uk/resources/1068

Central Intelligence Agency. (2014). North Korea. In The World Factbook. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kn.html

Choson Exchange. (2014). Choson Exchange. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://www.chosonexchange.org/mission-and-history/

Family Online Institute. (2014). Global Resource & Information Directory: North Korea. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://www.fosigrid.org/asia/north-korea

Ishida, K. (2012). N. Korea to let enterprises retain 70% of profits. The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://ajw.asahi.com/article/business/AJ201209040049

Laxon, N. (2011). North Korea leads the world in 3G adoption. Wired.co.uk. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/19/north-korea-3g

Lee, D. (2012, December 10). North Korea: On the net in world's most secretive nation. BBC News.  Retrieved November 2, 2014, from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20445632

Mid-Pacific ICT Center. (n.d.). What Is ICT Education and Why Is It Important? Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://www.mpict.org/ict_education_defined_importance.html

Pyongyang Project. (2013). Pyongyang Project. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://www.pyongyangproject.org/about.html

Singh, A. (2013). South Korea To Battle Cellphone Addiction Among Youth, 'Mindless Slaves' To Devices. Medical Daily. Retrieved October 25, 2014, from http://www.medicaldaily.com/south-korea-battle-cellphone-addiction-among-youth-mindless-slaves-devices-247332

Williams, M. (2011). North Korea tops 3G ranking. North Korea Tech. Retrieved November 11, 2014, from http://www.northkoreatech.org/2011/01/12/north-korea-tops-3g-ranking/

Williams, M. (2014). North Korea proposes expanding work with Russian IT companies. North Korea Tech. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from https://www.northkoreatech.org/2014/08/21/north-korea-proposes-expanding-work-with-russian-it-companies/