North Korea: Video footage reveals robots teaching children amidst nation's food crisis

Previous reports have revealed the food crisis that North Korea is currently experiencing. In the midst of the situation, video footage has revealed the nation’s students being taught English and math by robotic teachers.

Express reports last Wednesday, North Korean state network KRT released videos featuring the robot teachers and are reportedly being used in Pyongyang University. The robots were assembled to help children learn basic math, music, and English. This comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been pushing for reforms to education through technological and scientific innovation.

“Upgrading this robot’s intelligence was difficult for me as someone who majored in psychology,” Professor Park Kum Hee told the network. “It was the words of our respected Comrade General Secretary on adopting artificial intelligence technology in education that has always guided me on the right track.”

North Korea reopened its schools in June 2020 and mandated masks in classes and installed washing stations. Dr. Edwin Ceniza Salvador of the WHO in North Korea said that there are temperature checks, washing stations, and hand sanitizers in place in all public places in the nation. Dr. Salvador added that no public gatherings are allowed and citizens are mandated to wear masks.

Despite the technological achievements of the country, North Korea continues to face a food crisis. Daily NK editor-in-chief Lee Sang Yong said that reports of orphaned children in the streets and death by starvation had been constantly reported as of late. Lee added that the lower classes in North Korea continue to suffer from the famine that the nation is facing.

Previously, Kim has reportedly started removing portraits of his father Kim Jong-il and his grandfather Kim Il-sung in his attempt to promote his own ideology in North Korea and step away from the shadow of his predecessors. Kim’s removal of the portraits is also part of his attempt to emphasize his rule as the nation’s “Divine Leader,” a title that was previously only referred to his grandfather.

South Korea’s spy agency said governmental circles in North Korea are now floating around “Kimjongunism.” North Korea has yet to formally use the said term.