This study investigates the changes and recent development of English education in North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), analyzing the characteristics of secondary English textbooks published in the pre-and post-Kim Jong Un eras. This study analyzes the characteristics of English education in the most closed-off country North Korea with its own Juche (i.e., self-reliance) ideology advocated by Kim Il Sung, founder of North Korea. English education in this secluded country is clearly distinguished from major contexts in English as a second or foreign language education.
English education in North Korea has continued to teach war-related expressions and develop science and technology in the pre-Kim Jong Un era. In this regard, this paper analyzes the changes in 1) aims and approaches, 2) the overall organization of English textbooks, and 3) the topic varieties based on the revised secondary English textbooks after the Kim Jong Un regime. The future of English education in North Korea is also explored with the current political insecurity incurred by the Jangmadang generation, the post-COVID-19 pandemic, and the deteriorating US-DPRK relations.
Both pre-and post-Kim Jong Un era English textbooks promote North Korea's development and revolution under the Juche ideology. However, the most prominent changes of the revised English textbooks are teaching approaches and topics. Compared to the Grammar Translation Method approach of simply reading and understanding given texts and translating given sentences by applying rules of grammar found in the pre-Kim Jong Un era textbooks, the post-Kim Jong Un era textbooks focus on Communicative Language Teaching, allowing much more autonomous learning; students are now encouraged to communicate with each other, think for themselves, and solve problems through discussion in pair and group activities. This new emphasis is reflected in the post-Kim Jong Un era textbooks, adding listening and speaking sections as well as an authentic worksheet for communicative activities in classrooms to the existing reading and writing sections to fulfill communication-oriented education. Additionally, most passages in the pre-Kim Jong Un era textbooks for reading, which instilled anti-American propaganda and Juche ideology, justifying the Kim family's dictatorial legitimacy, were replaced in the revised English textbooks by practical reading texts focusing on computers, science and technology, and authentic everyday situations.
In sum, the changes in English textbooks in North Korea are radically progressive in terms of teaching approach, more sophisticated construction of textbooks, and topic variation. However, given the inherent conflict between the liberal, communicative orientation in recent English textbooks and the traditional emphasis on ideological education emphasizing the Kim family as supreme leaders, it remains to be seen whether this education reform in North Korea's English education will perform its intended purposes. Therefore, considering all these situations, scholarly attention must be paid to future changes in North Korea's English education as it may head in one of the two directions: serving as a tool for international communication or retrogressively perpetuating the Juche ideology to consolidate their internal unity.
