Educating North Korea

The BBC’s Panorama news documentary series visited The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology recently for a revealing look behind the unique school. The program, broadcast on BBC One on February 3, begins summarizing the Kim’s control over the country and its people and reminds us that Kim Jong Un recently had his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, put to death. “Remarkably, weeks before his death, we gained access to North Korea to film a pioneering experiment,” said reporter Chris Rogers during the introduction. Although perhaps more remarkable than the timing of the visit is that is happened at all. The last time Panorama tackled North Korea was in an April broadcast that saw reporter John Sweeney spend eight days in the country undercover with a group of students from the London School of Economics. Sweeney’s tactics attracted condemnation from the LSE and the result was a documentary that offered little new information for anyone that follows North Korea closely.